Georgia officials picked up a key congressional endorsement Monday as they seek a federal study on whether the shipping channel to the Port of Savannah should be deepened again following a harbor expansion that was completed in 2022 and cost nearly $1 billion.
U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said during a visit to the port that he supports authorizing the study as part of a sprawling infrastructure bill being drafted in his committee.
“One of those things that we want to make sure is a priority is further expansion of the port here in Savannah,” Graves told port employees and reporters as cranes unloaded a large ship at the dock. “It’s a priority of mine to get this study done.”
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FROM GEORGIA LEND SUPPORT TO STUDY WHETHER PORT OF SAVANNAH NEEDS TO BE DEEPENED
Less than two years have passed since the Army Corps of Engineers finished the last project, which added 5 feet (1.5 meters) of depth to the stretch of the Savannah River connecting the port to the Atlantic Ocean. The expansion cost state and federal taxpayers $937 million.
The Georgia Ports Authority has been pushing for Congress to consider another round of deepening Savannah’s shipping channel. The agency’s leaders say ever-growing classes of enormous cargo ships need even deeper water to be able to reach the port with full loads during lower tides.
Savannah has the fourth-busiest U.S. seaport for cargo shipped in containers — giant metal boxes used to transport goods ranging from consumer electronics to frozen chickens. Savannah handled 4.9 million container units of imports and exports in the 2023 calendar year.
“When you come to this port and ride by all these ships, you don’t even have to sell it to anybody,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican who joined Graves at the port. “Just let them look and they can see how unbelievable it is.”
Both of Georgia’s Democratic senators and each…
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