Plans progressing for new Jasper County port
Savannah: A project to create a Jasper County deepwater port on the Savannah River in Georgia is moving along according to Dean Moss, chairman of the Savannah River Maritime Commission. It should be a boon to both Georgia and South Carolina, he maintains.
Moss said the Jasper port plan is intertwined with plans by existing ports of Savannah and Charleston to deepen their waters.
Jasper County’s port would be located approximately eight miles from the entrance to the Savannah River’s shipping channel. Its location would enable the channel to be readily dredged up to 50 feet deep, opening the way for the region to serve new, much larger container traffic that cannot be accommodated in either the port of Charleston or Savannah.
The Savannah River Maritime Commission represents the interests of neighbouring state South Carolina in relation to the river. Moss believes both states can benefit economically and in terms of new jobs
Next up in the process of making the Jasper port a reality will be a permit application, which Moss expects will be filed in November or December, provided an engineering report approves that Charleston can go ahead with its deepening. His expectation is that if the project begins around 2022, the new port could be built by 2025.