The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a $2.3 billion container terminal at the Port of Savannah, clearing the way for Georgia Ports to push the East Coast gateway's annual capacity to 12 million TEUs. The permit for the Savannah Container Terminal followed a three-year federal review. Georgia Ports President Kevin Price announced the decision Wednesday at the authority's annual State of the Port of Savannah event.

The numbers are big. Plainly.

The planned 350-acre facility on Hutchinson Island will add 3.5 million TEUs of annual capacity and berth the largest container ships afloat. Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2028, with completion expected in the mid-2030s. Savannah currently handles 7.75 million TEUs a year.

"We're excited about the Savannah Container Terminal's role in our future growth and investment plans to take us to a 12 million TEU gateway container port, serving customers in Georgia and our nation with the best infrastructure in a high growth region," Price said.

What does the terminal mean for capacity?

The Hutchinson Island project is the centerpiece of a nearly $5 billion infrastructure plan Georgia Ports has lined up for the next decade. Beyond the new terminal, the program covers:

• Five additional large containership berths in Savannah
• Expanded roll-on/rolloff capacity at the Port of Brunswick
• A $1.6 billion redevelopment of Savannah's Ocean Terminal
• Work on the Talmadge Bridge, harbor widening and deepening, and expanded inland freight connections

Ocean Terminal is already well along. That project, more than 60% complete in late September, lifts annual container capacity from 200,000 TEUs to 1.75 million TEUs and should finish by the end of 2028.

"Our $5 billion investment in future port infrastructure is the largest in the nation and a reassuring roadmap to customers which comes on the heels of our $4.13 billion investment the last ten years in port and inland infrastructure," Georgia Ports Authority Chairman Alec Poitevint said. "We play the long game here."

Is the volume there to justify it?

Savannah keeps posting records. The port handled 504,015 TEUs in September, up 3.7% year over year — a monthly record — and pushed first-quarter fiscal-year container traffic above 1.5 million TEUs.

For carriers and BCOs routing Asia–U.S. East Coast cargo, the math matters: Savannah is betting that sustained volume growth will absorb berths nearly fast as it builds them. Forwarders serving the Southeast's distribution cluster gain headroom as capacity tightens elsewhere on the coast.

The buildout also lands amid a leadership transition. CEO Griff Lynch, in senior leadership at the authority since 2011, retires August 1, 2027, with Price set to succeed him.

Lynch's tenure by the numbers: container volumes up 90%, ro-ro volumes up 60%, revenues up 213%, according to the authority.

"I'm proud of our people, thankful for our customers and confident in the port and inland infrastructure we've built," Lynch said. "We're never done growing."

With the permit in hand, Georgia Ports can now advance one of the largest projects in its long-term push to expand Savannah and capture future container trade growth — with first concrete on Hutchinson Island targeted for January 2028.