BY PEPPER FISHER

Port Angeles – The Composite Recycling Technology Center (CRTC) in Port Angeles has drawn serious interest from the US Dept. of Defense, who recently “quake-tested” a model home made of the company’s cross-laminated timber panels. CEO David Walter said it passed with flying colors.

ABC News reports the research comes amid the Army’s growing effort to produce “smaller-scale contingency-style structures that can be disassembled, put into a container and moved to another place.” In short, what they’re looking for are “battle-ready” structures.

CRTC’s thermally modified structural panels, made from Western Hemlock obtained from, and milled on, the Makah reservation, offer great potential to the military because its dimensional stability during long-term storage is superior to traditional lumber, which expands and contracts over time.

Walter told KONP they have plenty of room to expand operations at their facility near the airport should the Dept. of Defense become a customer, and there is certainly no shortage of Western Hemlock, a species of wood not usually used for lumber because, unless it’s thermally modified, it deforms as it dries.

In the meantime, CRTC and the Makah Tribe have signed an agreement that will use those same composite panels to begin building housing for Tribe members.

Under the collaboration, the Makah homes will be built as a complete kit at the CRTC’s facility and will later be assembled on site in Neah Bay. CRTC will train members of the Tribe how to install the homes so that they can become certified installation specialists, and the homes will eventually become housing for the increasing number of workers at the mill that provides the lumber.

Construction is expected to begin in 2025.

(Photo shows the building that was quake-tested)