ATLANTA – Georgia’s next inland port will be built with the help of a $2 million federal grant.
The funding will build road and other infrastructure improvements necessary for the planned 104-acre Northeast Georgia Inland Port near Gainesville.
The $5.8 million facility will provide a direct rail link to the Port of Savannah via Norfolk Southern. The grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is expected to create nearly 700 jobs and generate $185 million in private investment.
“It is exciting to see this funding in place,” said Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA). “Improvements to adjacent roadways will further increase the public safety, economic development and job creation opportunities of the planned inland port.”
The GPA’s inland ports are designed to boost the role freight rail plays in moving cargo to and from the ports of Savannah and Brunswick. When completed in 2023, the Northeast Georgia Inland Port will offset 600 roundtrip highway miles by truck for every container moved by rail.
The GPA opened its first inland port in 2017 near Chatsworth in Northwest Georgia. A third privately run inland port in Cordele opened in 2013.
The new inland port will serve the manufacturing and logistics corridor along interstates 85 and 985.
“President Biden is committed to helping communities grow their critical industries,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said. “This EDA investment in Hall County will facilitate the expansion of the region’s research and development sector while improving the Georgia Ports Authority inland ports, creating new economic opportunities and jobs for local citizens.”