As the volume of rolling cargo moving through Georgia’s deepwater ports has nearly doubled in the last three years, the Georgia Ports Authority board this month approved an additional $2 million for high-density paving at Savannah’s Ocean Terminal.
“This project will provide greater capacity in moving oversized roll-on/roll-off cargo at Ocean Terminal,” said GPA Executive Director Curtis Foltz. “It will yield better efficiency and lower long-term maintenance costs by providing a more durable surface for moving and staging these heavy cargos.”
The latest appropriation brings the total amount dedicated to high-density paving at Ocean Terminal to just less than $5 million.
The improved surface employs roller-compacted concrete, which is conducive to the heavy traffic and loads endured by paved surfaces in a shipping terminal. Unlike traditional concrete, RCC is relatively dry when poured. Using this type of concrete reduced the cost of the project and the amount of natural resources required and offered a slightly faster cure time.
The latest funding will expand outdoor paved areas to improve sorting and storage of cargo, including the cargo pressure-washing area and cargo staging areas.
These improvements follow similar infrastructure projects at GPA’s Colonel’s Island Facility in Brunswick, where roadways, bridges and staging areas were also strengthened to accommodate additional tracked and heavy equipment.
The number of rolling cargo units moving through Ocean Terminal and Brunswick’s Colonel’s Island has jumped from 293,265 in FY2009 to 569,984 in FY2012.
That number will continue to grow, Foltz said, as the Caterpillar manufacturing facility near Athens begins to come online, producing small track-type tractors and mini hydraulic excavators. Proximity to the state’s ports factored into the company’s decision to bring those jobs to Georgia, Foltz said.
IKEA hosts students
Students in the logistics program at Groves High School took a pre-Thanksgiving field trip to the massive IKEA Distribution Center to get an up-close look at the heartbeat of the logistics industry.
There, IKEA distribution center manager William Jackson showed the group how the need for speed and execution in moving product has turned the huge warehouse into “the embodiment of high-tech efficiency.”
The nearly 800,000-square-foot facility supplies 10 of IKEA’s 38 U.S. stores, as well as a store in the Dominican Republic, handling an average of 50 container — or tractor-trailer — loads a day.
“Product comes in from the ports in containers and goes out to our stores on trucks,” Jackson told the students. “Our job is to make sure that happens as efficiently as possible.”
In the 110-foot-tall area known simply as “the silo,” an innovative automated storage and retrieval system takes each incoming pallet, scans its label, weighs it, squares it on the conveyer belt and then moves it — via automated shuttle and crane — to its proper place among the long lines of boxes stacked 18 levels high.
When it’s time to ship, the system remembers where that particular pallet is, retrieves it and brings it down for loading. The silo holds up to 82,000 pallets, with each of the 13 automated cranes capable of moving 37 to 40 pallets an hour.
The logistics program of study at Groves High is designed to prepare students for employment in the field of business logistics, said Curtis Bean, who heads up the program.
“Our program — which is open to all high school students in Chatham County Public Schools — introduces the student to supply chain management, ecommerce, Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety standards and the Environmental Protection Agency standards for hazardous material handling,” he said.
“Our purpose is to offer insight into the process of product movement, from receipt of inventory to the delivery of the product to the consumer,” Bean said. “We hope to positively impact Georgia’s logistics workforce by promoting awareness of maritime, transportation and supply chain careers.”
The pathway consists of three classes: fundamentals of logistics, business logistics operations and logistics material management.
For more information, contact Bean at curtis.bean@savannah.chatham.k12.ga.us or call him at 912-395-2520.
Strike idles LA/Long Beach ports
Most of the nation’s largest port complex remained shut down Thursday as clerical workers strike the Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals.
Union spokesman Craig Merrilees said members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are honoring the picket lines.
Port spokesmen say seven of eight Los Angeles terminals and three of six in Long Beach are closed. In L.A., 14 ships in dock and in the harbor aren’t being serviced.
On Wednesday, dockworkers refused to cross clerical worker picket lines even though an arbitrator ruled the strike invalid.
The clerical workers have been locked in a contract dispute with more than a dozen shippers for more than two years. They claim terminal operators have been outsourcing their jobs overseas. Shippers deny that and say they’ve even offered to guarantee local jobs.
Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.
SHIPPING SCHEDULE
These are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean Terminals in the next week. Sailing schedules are provided by Georgia Ports Authority and are subject to change.
Terminal Ship name Arrival
GCT MSC FEDERICA Today
GCT MSC SORAYA Today
GCT ZIM CALIFORNIA Today
GCT MSC FLORENTINA Today
GCT KAAN KALKAVAN Today
GCT XIN NAN TONG Today
GCT ASIR Today
GCT CMA CGM AMBER Saturday
GCT CMA CGM L’ETOILE Saturday
GCT ARNOLD MAERSK Saturday
GCT EVER DAINTY Saturday
GCT APL JAPAN Saturday
GCT MSC SINDY Saturday
GCT MELINA Saturday
GCT OOCL BRITAIN Saturday
GCT CHARLESTON EXPRESS Saturday
OT TYSLA Sunday
OT SAUDI ABHA Sunday
GCT MADRID EXPRESS Monday
GCT YM EFFICIENCY Monday
GCT ATHENA Monday
GCT NYK METEOR Monday
GCT PORTLAND EXPRESS Monday
GCT SUEZ CANAL BRIDGE Monday
GCT ZIM TARRAGONA Tuesday
GCT MOL ENDEAVOR Tuesday
GCT CGM UTRILLO Tuesday
GCT MAERSK DERINCE Tuesday
GCT HANJIN SAN FRANCISCO Tuesday
OT TULANE Tuesday
OT ANGEL ISLAND Tuesday
GCT SEA-LAND CHAMPION Wednesday
GCT FOUMA Wednesday
GCT HYUNDAI INTEGRAL Wednesday
GCT MOL INTEGRITY Wednesday
OT TAMPA Wednesday
OT ATLANTIC IMPALA Wednesday
GCT MAERSK DUNEDIN Thursday
GCT MAERSK ROUBAIX Thursday
GCT ZIM BEIJING Thursday