Posted on October 16, 2023
Like a card player with a Royal Flush, Griff Lynch, president and CEO of Georgia Ports Authority, declared the ports “all in” with ambitions to grow the ports from a regional hub into a national gateway for global trade at Thursday’s annual State of the Port address.
Lynch described three key shifts positioning the Georgia ports for such ambitions: the Southeast’s population explosion, game-changing investments in manufacturing and infrastructure in Coastal Georgia ― the fastest growing area of the state ― and the ascendancy of Southeast Asia, especially India, in global maritime trade.
“It’s moments like this when we invest in the future,” said Lynch, emphasizing growth in container and roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) cargo.
Portions of the Port Authority’s $1.9 billion master plan have been completed or are well underway, including infrastructure improvements to its Garden City and Ocean terminals. The Garden City Terminal received new STS cranes and expanded container berths, which increased the terminal’s annual capacity to 7.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units, making it the largest container terminal in the Western Hemisphere. Railway improvements, including the Mason Megarail completion and the development of connector sites inside a “mid-American arc,” has positioned the Port of Savannah within reach of 75% of the U.S. population within a three-to-four-day rail trip.
In Brunswick, Lynch said the vision was taking the biggest ro/ro operation in the U.S. to the busiest, especially with the near-future opening of the Hyundai Metaplant in Bryan County ― an investment projected to generate more than 14,000 jobs when it opens by 2025.
Population in the Southeast region has grown 9% since 2012, which has brought a flood of new industry, mainly manufacturing, to Georgia ― a point driven home by Speaker of the Georgia House Jon Burns from the podium and Governor Brian Kemp in a videotaped message, both of whom reminded the more than 1,200 attendees that for the 10th consecutive year, the Peach State has been named the best state to do business.
Lynch highlighted manufacturers such as Burlington, Bradshaw Home, and Aeronet Worldwide locating warehouses to the state. “When was the last time you heard about a big announcement like Hyundai coming out of California,” Lynch asked during his speech. “You haven’t, because it’s coming to Georgia and to the Southeast.”
Future of Talmadge Bridge
The ports’ rising profile ― it was ranked No. 2 in the nation behind New York/New Jersey and 53rd in the world, according to the presentation ― has also revealed some of its pressure points, such as the height of the Talmadge Bridge. Even with the deepening of the Savannah River, some of the newest generations of freighters cannot clear it.
“We have had to turn that business away and tell our customers we can’t do it,” Lynch said to reporters after the event.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has plans to raise the Talmadge Bridge, beginning in late 2024, as part of the 30-year maintenance plan for the bridge’s cables.
Absent from Lynch’s remarks, though, was mention of the Port’s plans to study another deepening of the Savannah River. These plans for a study come 18 months after the Port Authority dredged the river channel, according to reporting in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Georgia Port also made other news recently after it applied for a permit to build a new terminal on Hutchinson Island. The permit was also first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Port and city partnerships
At one point in his remarks, Lynch credited some of the port’s success to collaboration across the state between government and community partners. He later referenced that collaboration when asked how the City of Savannah plays a role in the organization’s national ambitions.
“We just need to keep working together,” Lynch said.
During a recent port visit by U.S. Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen, Lynch dubbed Johnson a “friend of the port.”
Yet, as the Georgia Ports and economic investments grow in the region, Savannah is grappling with how to harness the boom. Questions about housing affordability, workforce development, and the Hyundai Metaplant have played prominent during this year’s municipal campaign cycle, especially as more land is annexed and transitioned from agricultural and residential purposes for warehouses.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson has consistently touted the port’s recent $6 million investment in the city’s affordable housing fund for homes in West Savannah and Chatham County, a cornerstone of Lynch’s presentation at the convention center.
District 1 Alderwoman Bernetta Lanier is recently retired from working for the port, and some of the port’s operations reside in her district. After the State of the Port event Thursday, Lanier said her feelings on the port are always mixed.
“I love the progress, I love the growth of the port,” Lanier said. “But I don’t think we are doing a good job at all of balancing the impact on the port-side communities.”
