Savannah’s bustling riverfront is about to get busier. Here’s why.

SAVANNAH ― Eight towering cranes joined Savannah’s downtown skyline about 18 months ago only to sit largely idle since.

That’s about to change as the Georgia Ports Authority’s huge makeover of a 200-acre cargo facility, Ocean Terminal, enters a new phase.

Crews recently finished a 2,650-foot-long wharf along the Savannah River on the western edge of the historic city’s downtown. The completion clears the way for the terminal to handle additional cargo containers as it increases annual capacity from 200,000 container units to 1.75 million.

Initial plans are for Ocean Terminal to take over the loading and unloading of smaller ships that currently call on its sister facility, the Garden City Terminal. Garden City is the third-busiest cargo container terminal in the United States and 2 miles upriver from Ocean Terminal.

Construction underway at Savannah's Ocean Terminal as seen in January of this year. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Ocean Terminal’s activity will increase as construction advances on the facility’s container yard. The first phase of that work is scheduled to be completed in summer 2027. The terminal is expected to fully reopen in late 2028.

“Even though we’re not ready to go with the full operation, it’s going to provide more flexibility,” Georgia Ports Authority CEO Griff Lynch said. “It’s just really exciting to see these developments come together.”

The Ocean Terminal overhaul began in 2023 as part of a plan to double the Ports Authority’s cargo container capacity in Savannah. The port is the fastest growing in the United States and Ocean Terminal had long handled roll-on, roll-off cargo such as cars and heavy equipment as well as “breakbulk cargo,” or goods that do not fit in shipping containers.

Container volumes at Ocean Terminal were minuscule — as recently as 2019, the facility moved fewer than 3,000 containers a year.

The Ports Authority shifted the roll-on, roll-off and breakbulk businesses to its terminals in Brunswick in 2022 in preparation for renovating Ocean Terminal as a container-only facility.

The $1.6 billion project involves a near-total demolition of the 200-acre Ocean Terminal site, including the rebuilt and reinforced wharf, new truck gates, a new overpass and access road off U.S. 17, new administration and maintenance buildings and an upgraded container yard. More than 500,000 cubic yards of new soil are being added to the site.

Then there are the eight, eye-catching ship-to-shore cranes. Painted bright blue and standing more than 200 feet tall, the cranes arrived in January 2025 and, along with the iconic Talmadge Bridge, frame the downtown skyline.

Port facilities support about 650,000 full- and part-time jobs and contribute more than $170 billion in revenue annually in the state, a 2026 University of Georgia study showed.

The Georgia Port Authority is adding more than 500,000 cubic yards of new soil to the Ocean Terminal facility. (Miguel Martinez/ AJC)

The Ocean Terminal update came Tuesday during the Ports Authority’s bimonthly board meeting. Lynch noted that fiscal year 2027, which began July 1, has seen steady volumes with more than 1 million container units moved.

Volumes were up 2% in July and August, and September is looking strong despite weather-related shipping disruptions in China and the Panama Canal, he said.

China is the port authority’s largest trading partner. Vessels that call on Savannah from the Asian manufacturing power move goods through the Panama Canal.

The Ports Authority has been leveraging Ocean Terminal even during the renovation. The state entity has maintained limited cargo-moving operations on the facility throughout to meet terms of a contract with the local dockworkers union, the International Longshoremen’s Association. As work progressed on the wharf, the Ports Authority started using the terminal’s waterfront as a lay berth for vessels waiting for dock space to open at the Garden City Terminal.