Talmadge Memorial Bridges and Intermodal Port in Savannah, GA

(1953 Bridge Hunter; 1990 Bridge Hunter; 3D Satellite, 201+ photos)

Boston Public Library Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

The clearance of  this bridge was too low for some ships. And a couple of allisions with piers increased the urgency of building a replacement bridge. The cable-stayed replacement was completed in 1990 with a cost of $80 million. "The bridge provides 185 ft. of vertical navigational clearance at Mean High Water. With a main span of 1100 ft. and a total length of 1.9 miles the new Talmadge Memorial carries the 4 lanes of traffic on Hwy 17 over the Savannah River. Prior to the construction of the new bridge, a law mandated that Hwy 17 be re-routed across the Houlihan Bridge." [SavannahPortJournal]

GDOT (link is broken)

GDOT (link is broken)

Many of the piers of the old bridge still stand because "the cost of removing the old bridge was greater than the cost of erecting the new bridge."  [SavannahPortJournal]

3D Satellite

I spent some time on the dot.ga.gov web site trying to find info on this bridge, but I was defeated.

Marty Doorley posted five photos with the comment: "The original Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge carried U.S. 17 over the Savannah/ Little Back Rivers (1954-1991).  Most north-south interstate traffic used this 2 lane cantilever truss bridge between Georgia and South Carolina until I-95 was completed in 1977.  Its cable-stayed replacement opened in 1991."

Bob Whitworth: Scariest bridge EVER! It was awesome. Ridiculously tall and narrow.

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The current limiting factor for handling 14,000 TEU neo-panamax ships is the 42' depth of the navigation channel. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project to deepen the channel to 47' is expected to be completed in 2022 with a cost of nearly $1 billion dollars. Cranes have already been installed that are tall enough to handle the 14,000 TEU ships.  But ships that can handle 19,000 TEU, and even 22,000 TEU, are using other ports. The 185' clearance of the current bridge is not high enough to handle that generation of container ships because they increase their capacity by stacking the containers even higher. "Talks about a new bridge are in the planning stages and no details on size needed or cost were available." [SavannahNow, AJC]

SavannahNow
[A nice view of the old piers that are a monument to the endurance of properly poured reinforced concrete. It is too bad that Chicagoland contractors can't learn how to make concrete structures that last that long. For example, the new outer-drive that is just 33 years old is already exposing its rebar.]

Lamar White posted
4100 on the Savannah River

Danny Graham posted
Savannah ga
Richard Yarger Container cranes at the port of Savannah...looking West under the Talmadge memorial Bridge.

safe_image for Port Of Savannah Moved Most Export Containers In Start Of 2020
During the first five months of 2020, the Port of Savannah moved the highest number of export containers of any U.S. port. At 1,345 acres, Savannah’s Garden City Terminal is the largest container terminal in North America. (Photo: Jeremy Polston / Georgia Ports Authority)
[The Neo-Panamax ships are paying off for Savannah. Exports include raw cotton, wood pulp and kaolin clay.]

safe_image for Port of Savannah to add 1.6 million TEU of capacity

safe_image for Carriers Skip Congestion-Hit Port of Savannah
[Some ships will be going to Charleston instead of Savannah because Savannah has a wait time of 8-10 days with more than 30 ships at anchorage.]

safe_image for CSX, Georgia Ports Authority partner on daily intermodal service linking Savannah and North Carolina
"The transit time from ship to shore to Rocky Mount will be three days."

(new window)  Starting at 1:10, you can see the new bridge in the background.

(new window)  At 4:11 we see the bridge in the background and the fireboats celebrating the arrival of the largest container ship to arrive on the East Coast on May 11, 2017.


It was obviously a well publicized event because at 0:59 we see another angle of the arrival towards the bridge.

A Jan 28, 2023, article in the Chicago Tribune says that they are going to raise the bridge and replace the cables. I've seen reports that this port has siphoned off traffic from the Los Angles and Long Beach ports.

safe_image for BigLift Baffin ship carries giant cranes into Savannah
Today our HTV BigLift Baffin arrived in Savannah, USA, carrying four Konecranes Neo-Panamax STS cranes for Georgia Ports Authority. These impressive cranes, built at Nantong Wison Heavy Industries have an outreach and lifting height adequate for 24,000 TEU vessels. BigLift operates a fleet of four HTVs with a combined deckspace of 20,500 m2. BigLift Baffin’s deckspace of 5,250 m2 is being used optimally in this shipment.

Georgia DOT announced Jan 2024 that a $189m project will raise the bridge. Construction is expected to begin 1Q, 2025. The Port of Savannah is the fourth-busiest US port for cargo shipped in containers. The plan is to raise the 185' [40m] high bridge by 20' [6m] by replacing the cables with shorter cables. "The agency says most of the work can be done without closing the bridge to traffic." The Georgia Ports Authority handled 5.4m container units during the last fiscal year and is spending $1.9b to grow the capacity. The Army Corps of Engineers already spent $973m deepening the sipping channel, and the authority wants more dredging done. "Meanwhile, the Georgia DOT is studying a long-term project to either replace the Talmadge Bridge with an even taller span or build a tunnel allowing vehicles to travel beneath the river. A September 2022 report estimates that costs could reach $2 billion." [Chicago Tribune, Jan 5, 2024, p3]