The Port of Savannah has completed 60% of a $1.6 billion renovation that will lift annual capacity at its Ocean Terminal from 200,000 TEUs to 1.75 million TEUs — an eightfold increase that positions Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) to capture a larger share of East Coast container volume.

The Georgia Ports Authority said it will continue working smaller vessels at Ocean Terminal's 2,650-foot berth until mid-fall 2027, when the first phase of the container yard renovation wraps up. The full Ocean Terminal yard will be finished by the end of 2028, giving shippers and carriers a firm timeline for when the new capacity comes online.

For ocean carriers, the expansion adds meaningful berth options in Savannah, the second-busiest container gateway on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts. For shippers and forwarders routing cargo through the Southeast, the added 1.55 million TEUs of annual capacity should ease berth congestion risks during peak season and support service contracts that hinge on terminal reliability.

Trucking operations at the terminal are already up to full speed. The new truck gate at Ocean Terminal is fully operational, with 12 inbound and six outbound lanes. A $29 million port-funded overpass now routes departing trucks directly from Ocean Terminal onto U.S. 17 and Interstate 16, bypassing neighborhood streets entirely. That infrastructure change cuts drayage transit times out of the terminal and removes local traffic friction that has long drawn complaints from surrounding communities — a small but concrete gain for truckers moving containers to and from inland distribution centers.

"Transforming a 200-acre terminal while keeping the port operating is a tremendous undertaking, and the progress at Ocean Terminal is a testament to the hard work of our GPA team and our partners," said Georgia Ports Authority Board Chairman Alec Poitevint.

The phasing matters commercially. GPA is executing the rebuild without taking the terminal offline, which means carriers calling Savannah see no service disruption during construction — but also no capacity relief until the mid-fall 2027 first-phase completion. Shippers planning Southeast capacity strategy over the next two years will need to work within the existing terminal footprint until then.

Ocean Terminal is one piece of a much larger capital program. The improvements fall under GPA's port master plan, which calls for $5 billion in capacity enhancements over the next 10 years. That spending will add five container berths in Savannah and one RoRo berth in Brunswick, extending Georgia's reach beyond containerized cargo into roll-on/roll-off moves — a segment where Brunswick already ranks among the busiest U.S. auto-processing ports.

The $5 billion, 10-year commitment signals GPA's intent to stay ahead of demand growth rather than react to it. With East Coast ports competing for volume shifted from transpacific West Coast routings and for cargo from carriers adjusting networks around Panama Canal constraints and tariff-driven trade flows, Savannah's berth and yard expansion gives carriers a credible long-term alternative for Southeast distribution networks.

The near-term milestone to watch: the mid-fall 2027 completion of the first container yard phase, which will begin converting Ocean Terminal from a breakbulk-focused facility into a core container asset in GPA's network.