Georgia wants to study deepening Savannah's harbor again on heels of $973 million dredging project

abcnews.go.com:

The chief executive over Georgia's seaports says larger cargo ships will need deeper water and a taller bridge to reach the Port of Savannah in the near future

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Supersized cargo ships will need deeper water and a taller bridge to reach the Port of Savannah in the near future, the chief executive overseeing the major U.S. seaport said Thursday.

Griff Lynch, president and CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority, said during his annual “State of the Ports” speech that the $1.9 billion his agency is investing to grow Savannah's cargo handling capacity will need to be met with taxpayer-funded infrastructure upgrades.

Lynch said his agency is seeking congressional authorization to study another round of deepening for the Savannah River shipping channel. The Army Corps of Engineers last year finished deepening the waterway by 5 feet (1.5 meters), a $973 million project that took 25 years to study and execute.

Savannah has the fourth-busiest U.S. port for cargo shipped in containers — big metal boxes that transport everything including consumer electronics and frozen chickens. The port saw 5.4 million container units of imports and exports move across its docks in fiscal 2023.

The port authority estimates Savannah's container trade will swell to an estimated 7.6 million units by 2030 as population growth drives more trade to the Southeast and increased manufacturing in India, Thailand and Vietnam sends larger ships to the U.S. East Coast.

“Those are the types of things that will make us a national gateway," Lynch told a luncheon crowd of 1,200 including state and local business and political leaders. «We’ve got to be able to handle these ships. It’s very, very important. And it’s not just for the Georgia Ports