International Forest Products Ltd. (Interfor) allotted $19 million to upgrade its Grand Forks plant last year and recently announced it has authorized approximately $8.9 million for additional upgrades.
“Four million dollars of it is to do with the increased operational reliability of the plant,” explained Andrew Horahan, Interfor’s general manager of the Kootenays. “The $3.4 million of it is site work, including paving yards and site integrity of both the log yard and the lumber yards, and $1.6 million of it is to improve the aesthetics of the plant.”
The improvements will include re-cladding the buildings on the site and re-cladding and painting the interior of the facility and various other civil work projects around the site.
Horahan said that the additional money will bring the total capital that will be invested in the Grand Forks site this year to $27 million and said that there was a need to pave the yard in Grand Forks.
“We’d like to pave certain areas of it to reduce dust throughout the community, to improve the reliability of the operation,” he explained.
A bulk of the original $19 million is for the installation of a small log line and a smaller portion of it went to the installation of an automated grading system, which Horahan said is already installed and running well.
He went on to say that the upgrades will improve the local plant significantly.
“I’m excited that Grand Forks was able to obtain the necessary capital. The Grand Forks planer was modernized a few years ago, these changes will improve the saw mill dramatically and allow it to become an excellent facility and the money spent on the yards and the aesthetics of the plant will make it a world-class site,” he said.
Horahan said the estimated time when all upgrades will be completed is January or February 2013 but likely won’t lead to more jobs.
“The upgrades will not lead to a significant increase in employment but will result in a solid operation that will maintain employment levels for the future,” he went on to say.