The Georgia Ports Authority board said it approved $86.5 million to purchase four ship-to-shore cranes and 20 rubber-tired gantry cranes.
The ship-to-shore cranes are scheduled to arrive in 2016 and will give the port authority 20 super post-panamax cranes and nine post-panamax cranes. The gantry cranes will arrive in periodic shipments over the next two years.
“Our continued infrastructure investments enable us to work larger vessels and provide faster service to our customers,” GPA Executive Director Curtis Foltz said in a statement. “With this latest update to our crane fleet, the Port of Savannah will add capacity and opportunity for future growth.”
The cranes can reach across vessels 22 containers wide to a height of 136 feet above the dock. The cranes operate over 9,700 feet of contiguous berth space.
The port authority also reported a record month in April with the Ports of Brunswick and Savannah moving 67,963 auto and machinery units in April, a 17.8% rise from last year.
In April, GPA terminals increased total tonnage by 4.6%, to 2.52 million tons from the same time last year. Twenty-foot equivalent container units increased 3.1% to 266,930 units.
