by Web Editor | Jul 16, 2018 | News
OSU Gets Grant For Cross-Laminated Timber Research
Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Agriculture subcommittee, and Ron Wyden announced Thursday that a nearly half-million dollar U.S. Department of Agriculture grant was awarded to Oregon State University for research on the durability of cross-laminated timber, an innovative product that is helping to advance wood as a construction material for tall buildings.
“We have been working to establish Oregon as a hub for mass timber products, using local timber and bolstering our forest products economy,” said Merkley, who each year on the Appropriations Committee has fought to fund this important grants program.
“This research at OSU supports the innovative manufacturing that helps to create jobs in the rural part of the state, and lays the groundwork for tall wood building construction in urban parts of the state. I will continue to use my seat on the appropriations committee to get this important research and development funded.”
“Oregon is leading the way in developing state-of-the-art timber products that are revolutionizing our nation’s construction industry,” Wyden said. “This funding supports the ongoing research and innovative work Oregon State University is doing to ensure timber products can continue to spark economic growth and create good-paying jobs across Oregon.”
“Oregon State University is at the forefront of research to inform engineering design guidelines for cross-laminated timber structural systems,” said Anthony S. Davis, Acting Dean of the Oregon State University College of Forestry. “This grant award is another example of the excellent research done by scientists affiliated with OSU and the TallWood Design Institute.
Read more on this from KTVZ 21 News at ktvz.com
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by Web Editor | Nov 3, 2017 | News
American Wood Council released the following statement regarding the U.S. House of Representative’s passage of the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017 (H.R. 2936). The bill (H.R. 2936) includes the research title of the Timber Innovation Act (H.R. 1380/S. 538), which would establish a performance driven research and development program for advancing the use of innovative wood products in building construction.
“The United States has an opportunity to help bring an innovative and sustainable technology to our nation’s construction industry,” said AWC president and CEO Robert Glowinski.
“This bill includes language directing the technical assistance and research components already in place at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to facilitate the use of these innovative wood products into mainstream construction through research and development, education, and technical assistance. Supporting mass timber construction is a win-win because it would introduce new carbon-neutral building materials to our urban areas, as well as job creation in rural areas.”
Congressmen Bruce Westerman (R-AR), Mike Conaway (R-TX) and Mike Thompson D-Calif.) helped sponsor and advance the bill.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood/pricing-supply/wood-council-applauds-house-passage-resilient-federal-forests-act?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news,canadian_news
by Web Editor | Mar 20, 2017 | News
A new piece of bipartisan legislation has been tabled by The United States Senate and House of Representatives named the Timber Innovation Act. The bills were put forward to further the development of tall timber buildings in the U.S., thereby supporting the nation’s considerable timber market and the rural manufacturing jobs it entails.
“The United States has an opportunity to bring new, sustainable mass timber technology to our construction industry, and the Timber Innovation Act directs technical assistance and research components already in place,” said Robert Glowinski, President and CEO of the American Wood Council (AWC).
The bills aim to create a focused research and development program to aid in the advancement of tall wooden structures in the United States. Federal grants will be awarded to fund the research undertaken on state, local, university, and private sector levels. This includes the provision of education to architects and builders, in relation to timber construction.
“Mass timber technology is revolutionizing and disrupting the way buildings are being built around the world. Unfortunately, the United States has been trailing other markets in this regard. The Timber Innovation Act will significantly contribute to enhancing our industry’s ability to close the knowledge gap and stimulate private sector investment,” remarked general manager of the Binational Softwood Lumber Council (BSLC), Cees de Jager.
Additionally, the act will introduce educational and technical programs on timber design and applications, in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture and state foresters. Responding to continued job scarcity in the aftermath of the recession, retrofitting buildings in regions of high unemployment will create new positions in rural areas, while also addressing environmental concerns.
From ArchDaily.com: https://www.archdaily.com/866841/new-timber-innovation-act-advocates-for-nationwide-timber-construction-in-the-united-states
by Web Editor | Feb 3, 2017 | News
For centuries, wood was civilization’s primary construction material, but as the use of concrete, glass and steel grew, wood was largely relegated to flooring and interior paneling.
An exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington challenges that narrow use. It suggests that tomorrow’s buildings will or should be constructed of wood. The exhibition, “Timber City,” highlights the wide range of benefits offered by cutting-edge methods of timber construction, showing that wood is a modern, strong and versatile material.
The show highlights the two winners of the Tall Wood Building Prize, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “One in New York City and one in Portland, Oregon, are two premier cross-laminated (engineered, pre-fabricated) timber buildings going up right now,” said the exhibition’s curator, Susan Piedmont-Palladino. “They’re similar structures. Both buildings are using this material … in slightly different ways, but the goal is to build right in the middle of the city.”
And that’s what makes timber the perfect choice in a busy district like New York’s Manhattan, where construction speed and efficiency are vital. “Buildings go up very quickly. The materials for the building — the walls and the floors and the ceilings — are manufactured off-site. They come on a truck, pre-fabricated,” Piedmont-Palladino said. “So a work crew armed with power screwdrivers can basically assemble the building extremely quickly. There’s no long-term curing of concrete” needed.
Information panels in the exhibition explain that concrete manufacturing is the world’s third-largest source of greenhouse gases, and that harvesting timber — a renewable resource — has a lower environmental cost than mining the materials needed to make steel and concrete.
From VOANews.com: https://www.voanews.com/a/museum-cross-laminated-wood-building-material/3697202.html
by Web Editor | Nov 21, 2016 | News
WoodWorks, a proponent of large-scale wood construction in the U.S., launched an updated version of its free carbon calculator, adding more options for buildings made from cross-laminated timber (CLT) and other mass timber products. The addition reflects rising interest in large scale wood building construction.
WoodWorks, which receives finding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as timber companies and forest products manufacturers, promotes use of wood products as a means to store carbon, instead of building materials such as cement and steel that require fossil fuel energy to manufacture, a move that can help reduce greenhouse gases.
“The carbon calculator is a useful tool for building owners and designers who’d like to gain insight on the environmental value of alternate designs,” said Bill Parsons, Senior National Director of the Architectural & Engineering Solutions Team at WoodWorks. “It also provides information that allows them to express the carbon benefits of their wood building projects.”
To calculate the carbon benefits of a wood building, users access the carbon calculator at www.woodworks.org/carbon-calculator and enter nominal wood volume information. The calculator then estimates:
• How much time it takes U.S. and Canadian forests to grow that volume of wood
• The amount of carbon sequestered in the wood products, and
• Greenhouse gas emissions avoided by not using more fossil fuel-intensive materials.
• It also uses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator to equate the total carbon benefit to number of cars off the road and home operational energy.
From Woodworking Network: https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/free-carbon-calculator-shows-how-much-co2-wood-construction-saves?ss=news,news,woodworking_industry_news,news,almanac_market_data,news
