Georgia’s Gainesville Inland Port Set to Open in May

GAINESVILLE, Georgia — Georgia Ports Authority’s new inland port opens May 4, and the GPA says it will strengthen Northeast Georgia’s attractiveness and business competitiveness.

With a direct connection to Savannah’s 40-ships-per-week global ocean carrier network, local manufacturers — including poultry, heavy equipment, and forest product companies — can reach international markets more efficiently. Direct rail service, five days a week, between Northeast Georgia and Savannah gives shippers an alternative to a 600-mile round-trip truck route, reducing trucks on Georgia’s highways and in the Atlanta region.

At full build-out, the $134 million Gainesville Inland Port, formerly known as the Blue Ridge Connector, will have an annual capacity of 200,000 containers.

As part of the project, GPA funded $4.8 million in Hall County projects, eliminating an at-grade rail crossing, rerouting White Sulphur Road and surfacing Cagle Road. A new White Sulphur route south of the inland terminal ensures free access for emergency vehicles and avoids traffic disruption from trains, while officials argue that the resurfacing of Cagle Road offers an improved alternative for residents.

Both projects were completed in late summer 2025.

Additional Projects

Beyond the new inland port, GPA said it is carrying out a nearly $5 billion infrastructure investment plan over the next decade to expand berths, yards, gates, inland ports and rail capacity.

Phase one of GPA’s $1.6 billion renovation of Ocean Terminal in Savannah will open in July 2027. Phase two opens in December 2028, and the dock will stretch nearly 2,700 feet, allowing two large ships to dock simultaneously.

Ocean Terminal’s renovated container yard will open in phases starting in July 2027 through December 2028. A new gate complex at Ocean Terminal with 12 inbound and six outbound lanes will open by November 2026, while a new GPA-funded $29 million overpass is open now, enabling trucks to enter straight onto the I-16 corridor, keeping traffic off neighborhood streets.

Additionally, dredging operations at the Port of Brunswick are expected to wrap up by the end of March 2026, with additional work to be completed this summer, aimed at returning the port’s inner and outer harbor to the authorized depth. The U.S Army Corps of Engineers project is a normal part of the annual maintenance dredging for the waterway.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has moved into a new 300,000-square-foot facility on Garden City Terminal, doubling its previous size. Opened in February, the building also supports inspections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In June 2026, 4,000 square feet of refrigerated space will come online for chilled cargo inspections.

For the fiscal year to date, July 1, 2025, through Feb. 28, the Port of Savannah has handled 3.73 million twenty-foot equivalent container units, down 0.2% or 8,500 TEUs compared to the same period last year. February volumes reached 445,214 TEUs, a decrease of 7% or 34,633 TEUs.

At the Port of Brunswick, for the fiscal year to date, Colonels Island Terminal has handled 504,535 units of RoRo cargo, down 11.4% or approximately 64,800 units.

In February, the same facility handled 49,707 Roll-on/Roll-off units, down 19.4%, or 11,960 units. Of that trade, 2,660 units were heavy machinery, down 35%, or 1,440 units, from February 2025.