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Swinerton and its timber subsidiary Timberlab have outperformed the companies 192,000 square foot manufacturing facility for cross-laminated timber, a key component of renewable building material, according to a Nov. 20 press release.
Swinerton Builders, the company’s construction division, and project partners Lindgren Development and Lever Architecture, worked on the facility, called Independence Hall.
At the length of three football fields, it will be one of the largest CLT manufacturing sites in the US, according to Swinerton. The company expects to produce 7 to 9 million square feet of CLT annually, with a thickness of 2 to 12 inches. When the facility is at full capacity, Swinerton anticipates it will add about 100 jobs with an average total compensation of $80,000, said Danielle Ridgeway, the builder’s manager of external communications.
The structure started in Februaryaccording to the city of Millersburg, Oregon, where Independence Hall is located.
In general, workers carried out a closely coordinated installation process using glue-laminated timber, also known as “glulam”. For five months, crews installed, according to the release:
- 192,000 square feet of GLT roof panels.
- 240 GLT columns, which ranged from 32 feet to 45 feet in height.
- 260 GLT beams, which ranged from 90 feet to 110 feet in length.
- 72,400 square feet of structurally insulated wall panels.
The construction group also created a digital twin of the structure to speed up the installation process. The model helped to verify the layout of the CLT fabrication equipment within the facility, as well as the specifications for the machining of all the GLT columns. It also provided an Autodesk Construction Cloud VDC model for trade coordination, which helped deliver large-sized GLT bundles just in time.
Swinerton said the timeline illustrates how technology and sustainable materials can come together to deliver large projects more quickly and efficiently. The facilities are scheduled to be completed in early 2027.
In addition to its status as solid wood construction, many of the materials were manufactured in Oregon. These include lumber from Oregon-grown Douglas fir trees, GLT produced at Timberlab’s Swisshome and Drain facilities, and CLT panels manufactured at its Portland location, according to the release.
Swinerton and Timberlab are long-time advocates of the alternative, but growing, material and construction method. Chris Evans, president of Timberlab, has been bullish on solid wood amid tariff pressuresnoting its functional similarity to structural steel.
In other words, solid wood has seen a recent surge in interest and use in the construction industry. This has led trade groups, including hardware makers, to form their ranks to work with the material and take advantage of increasing prevalence of solid wood.
