Savannah Outer Harbor Deepening 15% Complete

The MOL Benefactor is the first vessel to call on Savannah through the new locks of the expanded Panama Canal.

At a capacity of 10,100 twenty-foot equivalent container units, the Benefactor is also the largest ship ever to call the Port of Savannah.

The massive container ship, scheduled to move over 3,000 containers at GPA’s Garden City terminal, is also the first Savannah call of the G6 Alliance’s new NYX service.

The East Coast rotation of the new service includes the ports of New York/New Jersey, Virginia and Savannah, exclusively deploying vessels in the 10,000-TEU range.

“The arrival of the MOL Benefactor today ushers in a new era of larger vessels and services that will increase capacity, volumes and economic opportunities for Georgia and this region,” said Griff Lynch, GPA’s Executive Director. “GPA is well-positioned to handle the larger vessels and greater volumes due to the scale and scope of our operations.”   

To better accommodate the larger vessels via water, the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP) will deepen the inner harbor to 47 feet and the outer harbor to 49 feet at mean low water.

This deepening will allow larger, more efficient container vessels to use the East Coast’s second busiest container harbor with fewer weight and tidal restrictions.

The outer portion of the harbor is now 15 percent complete with work progressing daily.

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