Construction is expected to start in the summer of 2022.
The next step for the project after receiving a $46.87 million INFRA grant will be applying for a National Environmental Policy Act permit and working out a contract with the federal government, said Griff Lynch, who is the executive director of the authority. This process may take around nine months, Lynch said, but they have all the permitting ready at the state level and will be able to begin construction once this further federal approval is confirmed. “When we apply for these projects one of the key components is how quickly can the project be developed,” Lynch said.
The inland port will add a new 324-mile intermodal freight rail service to connect the port of Savannah directly to a 104-acre site at the Gateway Industrial Centre north of Gainesville. It would also include six railroad tracks with a combined length of about 18,000 feet connecting with the Norfolk Southern Crescent Corridor.
In its document awarding the INFRA grant, the department wrote: “The project supports economic vitality by reducing freight travel times by providing a direct freight rail link to the Port of Savannah; it will reduce the need for containers moving between the Gainesville area and the seaport … by truck.”
Lynch said they have customers identified for the inland port but do not have contracts worked out yet.
There could be very positive environmental impacts potentially, he said, because “for every truck that we can move to rail, it’s a truck mile saved, emissions saved.”
There is potential for an uptick in truck traffic near the port, Lynch said, and the traffic studies they have conducted report that roads in the area can accommodate the traffic. Hall County recently received $2 million in grants from the Economic Development Administration and the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank to improve White Sulphur Road, which would connect to the port.
The authority has also seen bipartisan support for the project with U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, and U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, all advocating for the project, he said.
“We’re very excited about this,” Lynch said. “The governor is very excited about it. Senators are excited about it, and everyone has been very supportive of this project. … Everyone is very focused on infrastructure and supporting infrastructure improvements.”
The authority was denied a grant for the same project in 2020, but Tim Evans, the vice president of economic development at the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce said the authority had to wait its turn for this competitive grant. The authority had received a federal grant in 2019, so they wouldn’t get one two years in a row, Evans said.
“The feedback that we received last year was that that application was really, really good, but there is a political preference or just a reality that those INFRA dollars get spread around and don’t get to go to the same places every time,” Evans said.
The inland port and its connecting rail will help alleviate wait times at the port of Savannah, Evans said, because instead of waiting for a limited supply of truck drivers and trailer frames to transport containers, ships coming in can load directly onto a railcar.
“Just like the Silk Road provided a new trade route between Europe and the East this provides a new route for existing trade traffic for industries that are either exporting or importing products that go into their production lines,” Evans said.
It would be hard to estimate if this would cause new growth that would lead to increased truck traffic, he said, but the amount of containers the port is expected to handle each year is less than what a Wal-Mart or Amazon distribution center would handle. “The truck traffic that this is expected to generate is actually already on the roads,” Evans said.
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When construction could begin on Inland Port - Gainesville Times
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