Griffin Pipe Products planning expansion in Lynchburg

Griffin Pipe Products is planning to build a new 52,700-square-foot manufacturing addition to its Lynchburg plant.

The company says the expansion will boost the local site’s production capacity and put it in a better position when the economy rebounds.

Bob Ingram, director of manufacturing, said the project is still in the early stages. He expects the addition will be complete within three years. Some demolition has already taken place at their downtown facility to make way for the construction.

In February, Griffin Pipe closed its foundry in Florence, N.J., due to falling demand for its product. That left it with one facility in Lynchburg and one in Iowa.

“That’s plenty for the way the economy is now,“ Ingram said Wednesday. “But in a couple of years, we feel that’s not going to be enough capacity.“

Ingram was speaking during a public hearing on the project before the city’s planning commission. The expansion at Griffin Pipe’s riverfront facility requires some activity within the 100-year floodplain, necessitating a conditional land-use permit from the city.

The planning commissioners voted in support of the project 4-0 with three absences. Their recommendation will be forwarded to City Council, which has the final say.

Ingram said the addition will make room for four new iron casting machines that will be able to create bigger pipes than those currently produced in Lynchburg. It will also allow for related upgrades to the plant’s finishing facilities.

The new machinery will fill the gap created by the earlier foundry closing. Ingram, who’s based in Lynchburg, said he was pleased the company chose its Virginia site for the expansion after ruling out a return to New Jersey.

“This will hopefully ensure the future of this plant here in Lynchburg,“ he said.

The new system is expected to be a highly automated, “world-class” operation, he added. The planning commission asked how the addition might affect staffing at the local plant. Ingram said it was too early to tell, but at this point no additional hirings or layoffs are being considered as part of the project.

Production in Lynchburg has already slowed considerably as housing construction, one of its major revenue sources, has waned.

Last year, the local foundry reduced its manufacturing schedule to four days a week with fewer shifts operating each day. This year, it also put around 150 of the roughly 260 employees there on a seven-week unpaid furlough.

In New Jersey, the state’s Republican candidate for governor recently visited the shuttered Griffin Pipe site and pointed to its closing as evidence that the state overtaxes and overregulates its businesses, according to a June 4 article in the Burlington County Times.

The closing of the foundry there meant the loss of a 200-year-old business and about 250 jobs, according to the article.

The addition to the local plant, as proposed, will have roughly the same square footage as the Lynchburg Public Library, according to city property records. The library is listed as covering 52,677 square feet.

The new wing is slated to go up on a site that already has buildings on it. Ingram said one building has already been torn down and parts of other buildings will also be demolished, possibly as soon as three months from now.

Because much of the project will simply be replacing existing structures, the city’s planning staff said it was not concerned about increased stormwater runoff or heightened flood elevations.

A study carried out as part of the project concluded it would have no impact on flood levels in the area.

Petska is a staff writer for The News & Advance in Lynchburg.