Savannah gets its permit for a $2.3 billion container terminal
Can your largest ships get under the bridge to reach it?
What the permit changes for a liner network before 2030, and the bridge and channel outside it that decide which ships the new berths will take.
Georgia's port of Savannah, on the US East Coast, has its permit for a $2.3 billion third container terminal. Building starts in 2028 and ends in the mid-2030s, so the port's next new capacity comes from Ocean Terminal. Which ships the new berths can take depends on raising a bridge and deepening the river.
The US Army Corps of Engineers has approved the permit for a $2.3 billion container terminal at Savannah, Georgia's main container port on the US East Coast. The Savannah Container Terminal will add 3.5 million TEU a year on Hutchinson Island, in the river opposite the city. Building starts in January 2028 and is due to finish in the mid-2030s. Until then, a carrier's Savannah proforma rests on Garden City and the rebuilt Ocean Terminal two miles downriver, which reaches full capacity in late 2028.
The new berths are designed for the largest container ships. They sit west of the Talmadge Bridge, so every ship calling there will pass under it, as every Garden City call does today. The bridge gives 185 feet of clearance. Georgia's transport department says that height takes ships of about 14,000 to 17,000 TEU.
So what ship will the new terminal take when it opens? That depends on the bridge, and the bridge is outside this permit. Raising it would allow ships of up to 23,000 TEU. The department is replacing the main-span cables and studying whether shorter cables can lift the deck. A full replacement, either a new bridge or a tunnel, is still at concept stage.
The river is the second limit. The last deepening reached 47 feet in 2022. That channel was designed around ships of 8,200 TEU, and Savannah already handles ships of more than 16,000 TEU. In June the Georgia Ports Authority started a study of deepening, widening and passing lanes. It is aiming for the late-2028 federal funding bill. The last deepening took more than 25 years from study to completion.
Building the quay ahead of the river is the right order. A wharf lasts for decades, and designing it for ships the channel cannot take yet is sound engineering. But on opening day a carrier can deploy only the ships the bridge and the channel allow by then.
The clearance written into the cable contract is the number to watch. Procurement for that work is due to finish in the fourth quarter of 2026. Compare the figure with today's 185 feet. It sets the ship size for Garden City and the new terminal alike.
Primary sources
- officialGeorgia Ports launches new harbor deepening study Georgia Ports Authority, 2026-06-02
