Governor Kate Brown announced D.R. Johnson, a family-owned Southern Oregon timber company, is now the nation’s first supplier of a certified structural wood product known as cross-laminated timber, or CLT. The massive panels of engineered wood are used to build taller wooden buildings.
“CLT presents a new and exciting opportunity for Oregon. Expanding new industries and innovative technologies like advanced wood manufacturing will help reinvigorate our rural, timber-focused economies,” Governor Brown said at Oregon BEST FEST, an annual clean tech innovation conference in Portland.
The Governor and D.R. Johnson also announced:
A design competition to promote the use of CLT: To encourage more developers to use cross-laminated timber, the State of Oregon and its partners will host a design competition with $200,000 in funding and services. The competition is co-sponsored by Oregon BEST and a new collaborative partnership between Oregon State University and University of Oregon, the National Center for Advanced Wood Products Manufacturing and Design.
Two CLT projects in production: D.R. Johnson is currently manufacturing CLT panels for two Oregon projects. The Richard Woodcock Education Center at Western Oregon University is the company’s first CLT project and provided the momentum that encouraged D.R. Johnson to build the CLT plant and press. The company is also manufacturing CLT panels for a mixed-use building in Portland.
Business loan to support a new production line: To introduce the manufacturing technology to rural Oregon, Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, will make a $100,000 loan to D.R. Johnson. The loan will be used to offset the fixed costs of building out the new production line. The funding follows a $150,000 investment made last fall through Oregon BEST to support CLT research at Oregon State University, and development of the production process at D.R. Johnson.
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