Ocean Terminal Rebuild Takes Savannah From 200,000 to 1.75 Million TEUs

Georgia Ports Authority is spending close to $1.6 billion to turn a 200-acre breakbulk yard into an all-container terminal.

The Ocean Terminal renovation on Savannah Harbor rebuilds two existing container berths, extends the dock to roughly 2,650 feet so two large vessels can work at once, replaces the gate complex, and reconstructs the container yard behind it. Annual capacity goes from about 200,000 TEUs to 1.75 million.

Project Scope

The berth work is the long pole. Extending a continuous dock to 2,650 feet lets the terminal handle two neo-Panamax calls simultaneously instead of sequencing them, which is what actually moves the capacity number. The new gate complex and the yard reconstruction handle the landside throughput that berth capacity would otherwise strand.

As of mid-2026 the project is about 55 percent complete. The second berth was targeted for completion in late June 2026, and the gate structure was roughly 80 percent done against a November 2026 target. Phase one opens in July 2027 and phase two follows in December 2028.

Why It Matters

Savannah is among the busiest container ports in the United States and it’s chasing 9 million TEUs of total capacity by 2029. Ocean Terminal supplies a large share of that growth without dredging a new channel or buying new land.

That’s the argument this project makes to every other U.S. port authority: converting an underused breakbulk facility inside an existing footprint is faster and less contested than greenfield expansion. Savannah already had the water depth and the rail. What it needed was a terminal shaped for boxes.

Project Team & Details