An artist's rendering of what the Appalachian Regional Port near Crandall will look like once it opens.

CRANDALL, Ga. — The Appalachian Regional Port will be “open on or maybe a little bit before Oct. 1,” said John Trent, senior director of strategic operations and safety for the Georgia Ports Authority.

Gov. Nathan Deal announced the port in July 2015 at the Murray County courthouse, where officials from the state, the ports authority, CSX railroad and Murray County signed a memorandum of understanding for the port.

Commercial trucks will drop off and pick up loads at the port, which will be connected to the Port of Savannah by CSX. The port is located on what was formerly 42 acres of cattle pasture just off U.S. 411 near the Petty-Fairy Valley Park near the community of Crandall.

About a dozen operators and electricians were hired for the port last fall and went to Savannah in January for six months of training.

“Everyone that we hired, apart from the manager, was from Murray or Whitfield counties,” said Trent.

When the workers return to Murray County this summer they will begin preparing the terminal for opening.

“We’ll be making sure that all of the equipment, the systems, the switches on the railroad work,” Trent said.

He said he expects the port will start off with 25,000 to 35,000 transfers of containers between trucks and trains a year. When the port was announced, officials said it would have a capacity of 50,000 transfers a year, which they expected to reach by its third year of operation. There’s room on the site for expansion, and officials have said the port could be built out to reach a capacity of 100,000 transfers a year.

“I can’t get into the names, but we have a lot of customers who are very interested in the facility,” said Trent. “It will definitely help our customers get their containers where they need to be.”

Local officials say the port should be a big boost for economic development, not only in Murray County but the surrounding region as shippers and logistics companies look to locate near it.

While those facilities are expected to develop over many years, Murray County Sole Commissioner Greg Hogan said he is already making plans to deal with the expected growth.

“Among the positive benefits we expect are more job opportunities; more diversity to change our longstanding status of mostly single-sector jobs; growth in the housing, industrial and commercial construction; growth in the tax digest; a shift in the tax digest to relieve some of the burden on homeowners by adding commercial and industrial base; opportunities for additional technical school training and investments in the county,” he said.

Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce President Rob Bradham said he expects Whitfield County will also get some of that growth.

“I believe the Appalachian Regional Port will have a positive impact on the local economy,” he said. “I expect the port will attract distribution facilities belonging to companies that want access to the port in Savannah without the unpredictability of sending trucks through metro Atlanta traffic.”