The Georgia Ports Authority and the Hall County Chamber of Commerce provided updates Tuesday on the Blue Ridge Connector project in Gainesville as construction continues on White Sulphur Road.
The inland port, which is slated to open in early 2026, will connect the Northeast Georgia region with the port of Savannah’s 36 global container ship services. Freight is to be transported to the site via the Norfolk Southern rail line, where it will be picked up by trucks and brought to Atlanta.
Wesley Barrell, GPA's General Manager for inland operations, shared that the facility’s construction has focused on grading, with rail yard work set to begin in the coming months.
“(We've) probably got about another six to eight weeks to be able to start working on the rail yard,” Barrell said. “And then, in turn, we're going to be able to move further with some additional engineering at that point.”
The connector will feature 104 acres of terminal area, 18,000 feet of tracks, and 14 gantry cranes to increase the site’s productivity. The facility will have the capacity to ship 200,000 containers each year.
Barrell also highlighted that once the site is complete, it is projected to reduce emissions, cut transportation costs, and lessen traffic congestion on state roads.
“Norfolk Southern movement, from our freight, coming all the way from Hall County back down to Savannah, is obviously going to give that reduction in emissions, moving more with less,” he explained. “That's really part of that strategy which we have been able to cut that rail cost, cut that transportation cost, and then really the congestion which that gives throughout the state, then also that state improvement funding, which is also going to be reduced as well.”
GPA estimates that by 2054, the port will have saved roughly a billion miles that would have been driven by trucks, reduced truck use from 7 hours to less than 30 minutes, and avoided 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
The connector is also projected to create nearly 63,000 jobs within the Northeast Georgia region, with 9,682 jobs expected to directly impact Hall County.
As Hall County prepares to improve road infrastructure near the inland port, county Administrator Zach Propes also shared information regarding the TSPLOST set for the November ballot, which would aim to fund those projects should it be passed.
“Hall County is leading in investing in some of the road infrastructure in that area to realign White Sulfur [Road], improve Cagle [Road], improve intersections,” Propes told AccessWDUN. “All that's designed to help with traffic flow, to help with congestion, to help with traffic safety, and make sure that not just the Blue Ridge connector…but also the residents that live in that area, to make sure that they've got the safest possible access to and from their homes.”
The TSPLOST would be a 1% sales tax on goods and services in Hall County for up to six years. The tax would fund road improvement projects within the county. If passed in November, it would generate roughly $390 million.
