Although the winter and spring hasn’t given contractors cooperative building conditions, officials at New Pig in Tipton continue to feel their new building will be ready in August.
“When we first had the contract meeting in December, everyone said the weather would be a big factor in whether it would be completed on schedule,” said Scott Diminick, plant manager. “The winter has been a rough one and the spring has been a wet one. But even so, we’re still on target to be in by the end of August.”
The new building will replace the 70,000-square-foot inventory building that was gutted by a devastating fire in October of last year. According to Diminick, this new building will be much larger – measuring 350 feet by 350 feet and will contain about 122,500 -square-feet of floor space. Diminick said the building will be used strictly for storage.
“We’ve probably got about 60 percent of all the external wall footers poured and probably about 25 percent of one block wall is finished,” said Diminick. “We’re continuing to do more digging and I expect the crews to continue pouring cement and placing in footers.”
According to Diminick, with the recent rains, crews have been busy pumping the precipitation from the holes that were pre-dug for construction.
“Things are holding us up a little, but not too much,” said Diminick.
New Pig had help with securing the finances to build the new facility. In February, “Piggers,” the affectionate company name for employees, learned New Pig was awarded a $1.4 million loan from the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority.
Ralph J. Albarano & Sons Inc. of Duncansville have been contracted to complete the work. This is the same contractor who completed a number of building projects in the area, including numerous buildings in Ardie J. Dillon Industrial Park and the Blair County Ballpark.
On Halloween night, 2002, a fire broke out in Building No. 2 of the New Pig plant, which produces high-quality chemical absorbers and distributes the project world-wide. More than 20 area fire companies arrived on scene, but the flames were too much to handle. The building was a total loss and officials estimated damage in the millions.
The fire also displaced several working departments of the corporation, including the customer service area, sales area, technical services area, distribution, buildings and grounds maintenance office and the cafeteria.
In March, Diminick noted that Building No. 5, which was once owned by C-COR, is now occuppied by the customer service department. This building was also purchased with a PIDA loan.
“There’s still quite a bit of work that needs to be done,” said Diminick. “We need to get the walls up, get the roof on and get the placed poured and hopefully things will stay on schedule and we’ll be in by the end of August.”
