Planning for the 25-month project will commence immediately, with construction starting early in 2005. The modernization project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2006 and could employ up to 140 persons.

The plant will continue to serve the mid-Atlantic market, including the key cities of Norfolk, Washington and Raleigh, N.C. The modernization will increase the plant's annual manufacturing capacity by about 180 percent, to 750 million square feet of wallboard. The existing plant, which was built in 1947, has an annual capacity of just 270 million square feet of wallboard.