Staff Writer
NEW LIMERICK — After more than a year’s worth of work, Louisiana-Pacific is within months of debuting its newest addition — Solid Start LSL (Laminated Strand Lumber).
Photo courtesy of Louisiana-Pacific
NEW AT LP — A contractor pauses next to the new equipment used in the production of laminated strand lumber at Louisiana Pacific in New Limerick. The equipment is up and running and Plant Manager Skip Cleary said last week that they’re working to have the finished product ready to ship to customers by April.
The New Limerick mill broke ground in September 2006 for an addition to its Station Road site — a construction project originally estimated at $100 million. The project would allow the plant to produce LSL, a new engineered wood product that represents a change from what the mill has historically produced — oriented strand board. The new LSL product is one that company officials say meets the demand for alternative engineered home construction products; the product will also offer design flexibility and lower costs for builders, they say.
Plant manager Skip Cleary said they’re expecting to roll out the finished, sellable LSL by April. The equipment is up and running and contractors are wrapping up finish work that’s left inside and outside of the building.
“The [new] equipment is all installed and they [contractors] are doing finishing touches on it,” explained Cleary. “We’re looking at pressing the first mat at the beginning of March. Once we press that, they’ll be things to correct over there. But once we make a sellable product, we have to send that off to the APA, the American Panel Association, for approval. It takes them about six weeks before they send us back our stamps to stamp the product. Once we get the stamps, it’s full steam ahead.”
Production of LSL at the local mill added 50 new jobs there and brought LP’s total employee count closer to 160. Numbers of contractors at the mill have also been high in the past year. At its peak, the construction project employed roughly 400 contractors. These days, Cleary said totals are averaging closer to 250 contractors on site each day.
