Ports Authority approves Gainesville terminal plan

Channel 2 Action News has learned that the Georgia Ports Authority has approved a plan to build a $127 million inland terminal in Gainesville.

The state authority’s governing board voted Tuesday to approve the funding, which includes a $46.8 million federal grant. Known as the Blue Ridge Connector, the terminal will link northeast Georgia to the Port of Savannah by rail across roughly 250 miles, giving shippers an alternative to moving cargo by truck through Atlanta.

The total cost of the inland terminal will be $127 million.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln was first to report on the then-proposal in July when neighbors raised concerns about trains, trucks, and cranes that will now be coming to their usually quiet neighborhood.

“The reason why we moved here was to get close to nature,” homeowner Bonnie Bright said, who lives along White Sulphur Road.

Among their concerns are environmental issues involving pollution.

“We are going to get more trucks than we normally do,” Bright said.

Residents also have concerns with the sound coming from trucks and trains.

“It’s going to be extremely active,” homeowner Darrell Riveiro said.

Homeowners also fear being closed off from the quickest route to downtown Gainesville, White Sulfur Road, after learning it will be permanently closed because of this project.

The Georgia Ports Authority told Channel 2 Action News that the inland port in their community will be on a much smaller scale compared to the Port of Savannah.

“The last thing we want to do is upset the people of Georgia,” said Griff Lynch, the Executive Director of the Georgia Ports Authority.

He said the disruptions will be minimal.

“These trains that arrive at the facility, will be approximately 3,000 feet long. So, they’re not full trains,” he said.

Lynch said the cranes will also be fully electric to keep the noise produced down.

Lynch said having three inland ports will alleviate the distance tractor-trailers will have to travel by only going to these hubs, rather than traveling across the state to Savannah.

“It would handle about 10,000 containers of the let’s call it 60,000 containers that will be handled a year,” Lynch said.

He said that number could grow to 200,000 containers a year.

Hall County said it plans to reroute White Sulphur Road a mile south, so homeowners can get downtown.

“We put forward about $5 million to help redirect White Sulfur,” Lynch said.

The project is expected to be completed in 2026.

It will be the third inland terminal operated by the state authority, which also has them in Murray County south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in rural Bainbridge in southwest Georgia.

The Port of Savannah is the fourth-busiest U.S. seaport for cargo shipped in containers, large metal boxes used to transport retail goods from consumer electronics to frozen chickens. Savannah handled 5.4 million container units of imports and exports in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

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