Georgia Gov Nathan Deal, state officials and more than 350 business and civic leaders were on hand to officially open the Appalachian Regional Port (ARP) in northwest Georgia recently.
“The Appalachian Regional Port is a powerful new gateway to the Port of Savannah that extends the efficiencies of Georgia’s superior port operations to new markets,” said Deal. “It will also serve as an economic development magnet, drawing business and industry to the southeast United States.”
Located in Murray County, the new state-of-the-art facility will provide logistics solutions for customers in a four-state region and remove an estimated 50,000 trucks and 15 million truck miles from local highways every year.
“The ARP is part of our Network Georgia initiative that brings services from the coast to communities around the state,” said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. “The new inland terminal will provide the same, superior quality services our customers have come to rely on: congestion-free, easy access, expedited handling and reliability.”
Through intermodal rail service from CSX, the Appalachian Regional Port offers customers across north Georgia, northeast Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky a more efficient option to move cargo to and from Savannah’s container port.
Handling both import and export containers, CSX will provide service on a direct, 388-mile rail route to and from the Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal.
The new rail terminal will be worked by three electric rubber-tired gantry cranes. Each has a lift capacity greater than 40 tons and, working together, can handle 100,000 container lifts per year.
Murray County is a Tier 1 area, meaning special incentives are available to job creators that locate there. More direct and economical access to the second-busiest port on the East Coast will make Murray County more attractive to those involved in site selection.
Illya Copeland, executive director of the Murray County Industrial Development Authority (IDA), said the area offers prime locations for manufacturing and logistics development near the inland port.
“Murray County features 16 sites offering more than 1,500 acres of developable land, most of which can support multiple developments,” said Copeland. “Of the 1,500 acres, 258 acres are rail-front property.”
He said the IDA bought a 382-acre tract in January and is closing on two port-related projects in the park.
For more information, visit www.gaports.com.
