SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Every member of Congress from Georgia signed a letter calling for a study to determine whether the busy shipping channel to the Port of Savannah needs to be deepened again after a $937 million harbor expansion that was just completed in 2022.
The offices of Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Rep. Buddy Carter on Tuesday released a copy of the letter sent to top-ranking members of the House and Senate committees that would handle legislation to authorize a study.
The Georgia Ports Authority is pushing for Congress to consider another round of deepening Savannah’s shipping channel. The agency’s leaders say ever-growing classes of cargo ships need deeper water to reach the port with full loads at lower tides — even though 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 waterway.
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.