HOULTON - Louisiana-Pacific Corp. celebrated the grand opening Tuesday of its Houlton laminated strand lumber facility.

The expansion and conversion to an LSL mill represents an investment of more than $140 million.

LP broke ground on the expansion in the fall of 2006, making the first board in March of this year. The first rail car of 1¾-inch laminated strand lumber was shipped from the mill on June 4.

The Houlton facility opened in 1982 as an oriented-strand board mill.

Designed for an annual production capacity of 7 million cubic feet, Houlton is LP's first LSL manufacturing facility, and one of the few facilities producing LSL in North America.

LSL, a structural engineered wood product based on wood-strand technology, is used in a wide variety of residential construction applications including headers, beams, wall studs, roof beams, rafters and stair stringers.

The expansion has added about 40 jobs to the Houlton mill, which now employs 158 workers.

Community leaders along with state and local dignitaries joined LP senior management and mill employees to cut the ceremonial ribbon and tour the new facility.