$120M Technology Investment in Lumber Mill
Georgia-Pacific just recently invested about $120 million within Pineland Lumber in Pineland, Texas. This makes it the largest lumber mill in the South and a major competitor in the forest products industry.
According to Woodworking Network, the capital improvement project at Pineland Lumber began last April, and includes a modified log yard, a fully modernized sawmill, a continuous dry kiln, and a high-speed planer. “We built a sawmill within an existing sawmill, which presented a few challenges,” said Ronnie Comeaux, Georgia-Pacific regional lumber manager. “However, we continued to successfully operate at full capacity through the entire construction process, and in the end, we were able to modernize our lumber complex that will sustain operations for years to come.”
Pineland Lumber can now accept more log trucks per day—in less time. The modified log yard and the use of wheel loaders, which can unload a truck in one “bite” as opposed to two, will increase the mill’s truck traffic from approximately 250 to 300 per day. The result? Pineland Lumber will produce 450 million board feet of lumber annually, the same amount of lumber needed to build 30,000 houses.
In addition to increased capacity, Pineland Lumber now has the ability to produce new products. Unique to the facility is the application of cross-laminated timbers (CLT), which are used to construct electrical control rooms and specialty equipment enclosures.
