The completion of Garden City Terminal dock construction allows the Port of Savannah to serve three 14,000-TEU vessels as well as up to eight vessels simultaneously. But now the Georgia Ports Authority has announced the acquisition of 145 contiguous acres to the port that will allow for more than 1 million twenty-foot equivalent container units in annual capacity.

“As the Georgia Ports Authority enters its 75th year, we are proud to follow in the tradition of those who came before us, making exciting advances in capacity and technology to ensure our terminals remain at the forefront of global commerce,” said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch at the Georgia Foreign Trade Conference on Feb. 4. “This is the largest addition of container terminal space in Savannah in more than 20 years, and represents a powerful opportunity for Georgia to take on new trade.”

Construction currently underway at the Ocean Terminal container yard is expected to be completed by the end of this year. An additional berth to be finished by 2023 will mean Garden City Terminal will have four big ship slots. A new Savannah Container Terminal on Hutchinson Island is projected to come online in 2025. The GPA’s goal is to increase its capacity to more than 9 million TEUs by 2030.

Georgia’s deepwater ports and inland barge terminals support more than 439,000 jobs throughout the state annually and contribute $25 billion in income, $106 billion in revenue and $2.9 billion in state and local taxes to Georgia’s economy, according to the GPA.