Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) on Aug. 6 provided a progress report on its planned inland terminal, the Blue Ridge Connector in northeast Georgia, which Norfolk Southern (NS) in 2026 will link with the Port of Savannah’s 36 global container ship services that call each week.
The GPA Board last December approved $127 million to build the 104-acre facility, which will be located in Gainesville and serve a range of industries including consumer goods, heavy equipment, food, and forest products. Once completed, it will have six tracks totaling 18,000 feet and a capacity of 200,000 lifts annually, building upon the nearly 20% of GPA’s container cargo that currently moves by rail. Additionally, it will be served by 14 hybrid electric rubber-tired gantry cranes. NS will provide five-day-per-week service to the facility, which is expected to employ 20 people and operate from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. GPA is slated to offer expedited service from Savannah to the Blue Ridge Connector with third day availability. (Scroll down to download the Blue Ridge Connector fact sheet.)
According to GPA, the presence of the inland terminal in Hall County will provide a ready source of empty containers for exports produced in the region.
“Construction is moving along well,” GPA General Manager of Inland Operations Wesley Barrell told attendees of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce Logistics Forum in Gainesville on Aug. 6, according to GPA. “With another six weeks of earthwork, the rail yard grade will be met, allowing for additional engineering to advance. We are working closely with NS on tying our infrastructure into its existing track.”
“We will offer refrigerated cargo by rail, with this unique transit from the Blue Ridge Connector to Savannah,” he noted. “There are five cold storage freezers within five miles of our location, and more than 50 users of those cold storage facilities. We look to provide services to this customer base.”
The Blue Ridge Connector “will act as an economic catalyst for northeast Georgia, bringing jobs and opportunity,” just like GPA’s first inland terminal, the 42-acre Appalachian Regional Port in northwest Georgia’s Murray County, Barrell said. GE Appliances, Huali Floors, SK Battery and the Hanwha Q Cells solar panel factory have located or expanded within the CSX-served Appalachian Regional Port area since that facility’s opening in 2018.
According to GPA, an existing, locally owned company recently began operation of a foreign trade zone within 10 miles of the Blue Ridge Connector, where import cargo may be held for storage, assembly or manufacturing without payment of duties until the goods move into the domestic market.
The Blue Ridge Connector will link to the Port of Savannah’s Mason Mega Rail Terminal, which is served by NS and CSX.
“With 24 miles of on-terminal track, Mason Mega Rail provides ample space to take on new rail business,” Barrell said.
Mason Mega Rail is capable of serving six 10,000-foot trains simultaneously and has doubled Georgia Ports’ previous intermodal capacity to 2 million TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units) per year.
“That unmatched capacity links Savannah to a broad swath of inland markets through Class I rail service,” Barrell said. “By speeding the flow of cargo, Mason Mega Rail is changing the way cargo reaches a wide network of inland destinations from Atlanta and Dallas to Memphis, Chicago and other destinations across the Midwest.”
Cargo moves from vessel offload to departing rail in Savannah in just 29 hours, according to GPA.
In related developments, GPA recently reported handling 5.25 million TEUs in fiscal year (FY) 2024, ending June 30, 2024, constituting a decrease of 2.3%, or 123,000 TEUs, compared with the previous year. Also in FY2024, it achieved record trade of 36,730 rail lifts at its Appalachian Regional Port, a 9% increase over FY2023.
