Kalesnikoff Lumber is going to be involved in several mass timber projects recently announced by the province.
The B.C. government is providing $4.2 million in funding for 12 mass timber demonstration and research projects, and has established a new advisory council to accelerate the adoption of mass timber building systems as part of its economic recovery plan.
“The face of construction is about to change in British Columbia through our government’s investments in mass timber,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. “By encouraging greater use of mass timber, we are supporting jobs in research, design, engineering, construction and forestry using B.C. expertise and materials.”
That is good news for Kalesnikoff Lumber, who spent $35 million in 2019 to build a mass timber production facility at the company’s South Slocan property. The facility also created 65 new jobs — most of them during the pandemic — resulting in over $5 million in local wages each year.
Kalesnikoff will be providing products for a 21-storey rental building in Vancouver.
The project will demonstrate mass timber-steel-concrete use in a tall building and cost-effective design solutions using materials for their highest value. Learning from the project will be shared as open source. The developers are also aiming for the City of Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Building Plan standard for the building.
Kalesnikoff will also be involved in a fire test demonstration put on by the Canadian Wood Council, GHL Consultants and CHM Fire Consultants.
The fire tests will be used to educate key stakeholders about the performance of mass timber construction. Test data will support future code change proposals and new fire suppression systems.
Kalesnikoff’s communications manager Dauna Ditson says the company has also bid on supplying products for most of the other projects included in the provincial announcement.
READ MORE: Horgan says B.C. logging licences to be bought back, redistributed
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