Savannah Harbor Deepening 62 Pct Complete

The Savannah Harbor deepening project, with the main goal to allow today’s larger container vessels to enter and leave the harbor during a longer tide window and with more cargo aboard, is approximately 62 percent complete.

The deepening of the Savannah harbor has set a new precedent with four dredges in the harbor simultaneously, the Army Corps of Engineers announced recently.

“The Savannah District continues to manage the intensely complicated task of coordinating dredge actions and placement of dredged material to ensure safety, compliance with contract requirements and timeliness to reach our goal of completing this major deepening in January 2022,” Col. Daniel H. Hibner, commander of the Corps’ Savannah District said. “This effort ensures the harbor will improve the ability of Savannah to meet the demands of today and tomorrow.”

With finely tuned coordination, each dredge and its associated support vessels must be at the right place at the right time. The two smaller maintenance dredges remove built up shoaling and sediment, then move on followed by the larger deepening dredges.

According to USACE, all vessels must move aside whenever commercial vessels enter their area. In addition, workers must move pipelines leading from the dredges to the dredge material disposal areas. After commercial traffic passes, everything must return to continue the routine. All dredges work 24 hours a day, every day.

“The cooperation we receive from GPA, our dredging contractors, the harbor pilots, the Coast Guard and others demonstrates the dedication this community has for deepening the Savannah harbor,” Hibner said.

Because the project will have such a large positive effect on the nation’s economy, the SHEP has received significant federal support.

In the federal budget for fiscal year 2020, $130.3 million is devoted to the SHEP, while another $28.6 million in maintenance and operations funding is going toward Savannah River maintenance dredging.

According to a Corps of Engineers feasibility study, lower container slot costs on the larger vessels accommodated by the deeper harbor will save U.S. producers and retailers $282 million per year in transportation expenses. The study found that every dollar spent on construction will yield $7.30 in benefits.

Identifying the environmental impacts

Given the proximity of the shipping channel to sensitive estuarine resources, the Corps, along with its state and federal partners, conducted exhaustive engineering and environmental studies to identify the environmental impacts that would be expected from the project and ensure those impacts will be offset through mitigation.

Mitigation accounts for approximately half of the project cost, said USACE.

Environmental mitigation features include installing a dissolved oxygen system; constructing a fish bypass upstream at the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam; re-routing freshwater flow in the upper harbor; preserving 2,245 acres of freshwater wetlands for the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge; and recovering remnants of the CSS Georgia civil war ironclad that rested some 40 feet below the river’s surface.