GPA’s Cross Terminal Roadway Receives Honor Award for Engineering Excellence

Savannah, Ga. – April 8, 2011 – The nation’s largest single-terminal container facility, the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal, received an Honor Award for engineering excellence for its two-mile Cross Terminal Roadway project.

“As a component of our ongoing capital investments to ensure long-term capacity improvements, we take pride in the improved efficiency, productivity and safety the Cross Terminal Roadway provides,” said Georgia Ports Authority’s Executive Director Curtis J. Foltz. “We are honored to receive recognition, along with Moffatt & Nichol, for engineering excellence from the Georgia Engineering Alliance.”

Completed in August 2010, the $6.6-million road separates traffic between the container yards and supports functions located behind the yards. Comprised of four, 12-foot-wide travel lanes, a 15-foot-wide center turn lane and 6-foot-wide shoulders, the road also includes a 145-foot-by-72-foot-wide concrete bridge over the Pipemakers Canal.

In accordance with the GPA’s environmental initiative, approximately 20,000 tons of crushed concrete were recycled for the new roadway base, 1,300 tons of asphalt millings were placed on-site and an estimated 2,300 tons of reclaimed asphalt were utilized in the asphalt pavement mix for the new roadway. Overall, more than five percent of the materials used for the project were reused.

“This project may prove to have the most impact on productivity and safety of any single infrastructure project at Garden City Terminal since its conversion to a container terminal,” said GPA’s Senior Director of Engineering and Facilities Maintenance Wilson Tillotson, P.E. “In the first quarter the road was open, turn times decreased by at least eight minutes and traffic accidents decreased by 38 percent.”

Moffatt and Nichol assisted with planning, design and construction support for the two-mile corridor, which provides direct access across the 1,200-acre terminal from the north end to the south. In order to minimize the construction’s impact on port traffic, Moffatt and Nichol also managed sequencing to limit delays within the gates.

“As the Garden City Terminal continues to experience growth, the advancement of terminal efficiency hinges on the investment in infrastructure,” said Foltz. “The construction of the Cross Terminal Road was completed with virtually no negative impact to the operation of the terminal, occurring under budget and two weeks ahead of schedule.”

Georgia’s deepwater ports and inland barge terminals support more than 295,000 jobs throughout the state annually and contribute $15.5 billion in income, $61.7 billion in revenue and $2.6 billion in state and local taxes to Georgia’s economy. The Port of Savannah handled 8.6 percent of the U.S. containerized cargo volume and 12.4 percent of all U.S. containerized exports in 2010.

For additional information, please contact GPA’s Senior Director of External Affairs Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com. Visit the GPA web site at www.gaports.com