Boise Cascade, a leading manufacturer of building materials, announces plans to invest $75 million dollars to expand and modernize its Oakdale facility in Allen Parish. Vice President Mike Brown says the company expects to create 30 new direct jobs and…
“They’re incremental positions that will probably added in the forest as well as the transportation of material between one mill and the other.”
Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in 77 indirect new jobs, for a total of 107 potential new jobs.
Brown says the expansion of the Oakdale facility will increase veneer production by 30 percent. He says upgrading machines and technology will also increase efficiency.
“We’re going to basically replace the log utilization center in it’s entirety. And then we’re going to take two very old veneer dryers, replace them with one large new dryer.”
Boise Cascade also has facilities in Florien and Alexandria. Mill capacity at the EWP mill near Alexandria is the largest in North America.
Brown says the facility will be able to produce up to 400 million square feet of dry veneer every year. He says the construction process will be split into stages and expects it to start later this year.
“We’ll be doing sort of infrastructure development work. And then starting around the end of this year and into early 2025 we’ll take some time out at different machine centers to basically take out the old equipment and install the remainder of the new equipment.”
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