The Trucker Newspaper - October 15, 2018

Thetrucker.com
Nation October 15-31, 2018 • 11
Georgia plans to build 2nd inland container
port, construct ‘truck-only’ lanes on I-16
THE TRUCKER NEWS SERVICES
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal
said his state is planning to invest in a second
inland container port facility and build “truckonly”
lanes on Interstate 16 out of the port of
Savannah in a bid to relieve traffic congestion
and improve highway safety.
Deal revealed his intentions during a speech
at the American Association of State Highway
and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) annual
meeting late last month, according to a report
in the AASHTO Journal.
“We have a good port in Savannah — the
second-busiest port along the entire Atlantic
seaboard,” Deal said. “That’s good but also
bad because it creates traffic problems. I don’t
mean to step on toes in the trucking business,
but those trucks [hauling freight containers to
and from the port] are always a concern to the
driving public in smaller vehicles. So as the
port grows, the number of trucks and containers
grows, as well.”
To help relieve that congestion on Interstate
75 caused by freight-hauling trucks, Deal
said he helped cement a deal three years ago
involving the Georgia Ports Authority, Murray
County and CSX Transportation that led to
the construction of an inland port in the northwest
corner of Georgia called the Appalachian
Regional Port, which services North Georgia,
Alabama, Tennessee and parts of Kentucky.
Deal said that inland port — opened earlier
this year and one of two in Georgia — “takes
50,000 containers a day off our roadways and
will take double that number off our roads in
10 years. Soon, we will announce [construction
of] a similar port in northeast Georgia off the
I-85 corridor. We are excited about that; it will
allow truckers to go to an inland terminal and
load containers on rail cars that will be transported
to our port in Savannah.
Deal added that Georgia is also planning to
build a dedicated truck lane on I-16 out of the
port of Savanah heading north.
“I think that may be the only dedicated
truck lane in the country and we’ll be pleased
when that comes into the being,” Deal said.
He noted that such highway construction is
made possible by a $1 billion transportationfocused
tax increase Georgia’s legislature
passed in 2015.
“When you are growing rapidly, that puts
great pressure on your infrastructure — we
were mindful of that,” he said. “Under our old
formula, if you had the road paved in front
of your house while you were in high school,
you’d be eligible for Social Security before it
was repaved again. So our consistent and unified
effort to educate our legislature helped get
a new transportation bill passed in 2015, giving
us $1 billion in additional revenue for infrastructure
renewal in Georgia.” 8
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