POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. — Plans to start construction of the massive Nucor Steel production facility in Mason County are progressing.
Photo/WCHS-TV
Speaking on MetroNews “Talkline” in recent days, Nucor Vice-President and General Manager John Farris said they company has set up its headquarters temporarily in the old Mason County Armory and continued to lay the ground work for construction.
“We’ve got about 20 people on the team currently and about 80 percent of the equipment is already purchased and we are getting things underway,” he explained.
The groundbreaking is slated to be held later this year or possibly next year. The company is currently going through the permitting process. It has secured all of its state permits. It is still working the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on other permites.
The sprawling plant, to be built along the Ohio River and Route 2 south of Point Pleasant, will take about two years to construct. According to Farris, at the height of construction they expect as many as 2,000 construction workers on the job. Once in full operation, the plant will provide 800 permanent, full-time jobs.
“We’re going to need contractors from wherever we can get them. Obviously our preference will be contractors from within West Virginia. So far, we’ve selected two and we’ve got many, many more to go,” Farris told MetroNews.
Where does everything stand with @NucorCorp here in West Virginia? John Farris, Vice President and General Manager of Nucor Steel WV, joins @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/pyMQEIgeDc
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) September 2, 2022
The plant has stirred excitement all over the state and is generating buzz that could draw a lot of former West Virginians back home to take new jobs in Mason County. According to Farris, it’s already happening. His first employee of the new facility is a native West Virginian who lived in Charlotte and had worked for nearly three decades for Nucor. Farris said the lady banged on his office door the moment the West Virginia project was announced and said she wanted to join his team.
“She grew up in Clarksburg, West Virginia and she was officially the first person I hired for this project. To see the tears on her face and her joy and happiness just to get back to her home state was unbelievable,” he said.
Local officials are counting on a lot more of those kinds of stories in the months ahead.