BUCKSPORT – Local International Paper Co. officials are preparing to start preliminary engineering and permitting work while they await final corporate approval for a proposed $16 million upgrade of the mill wood yard.

The project has moved through two of the three levels of acceptance, according to the mill’s communications manager, Bill Cohen.

“Projects that get through the second level of acceptance generally don’t fail in the third level,” Cohen said Monday. “So we’re guardedly optimistic.”

Officials at the Bucksport mill have been authorized to spend about $2 million on the preparatory work. About $400,000 has been earmarked for preliminary engineering work and for local and state environmental permits for the project. The mill also has been authorized to spend about $1.2 million on some equipment for the upgrade that must be ordered far in advance, Cohen said.

“To me, this is a signal that the company believes in the mill and is willing to invest significant funds here,” he said. “That’s a credit to the local folks who focus on the mill and its successful operation.”

The proposed project involves an upgrade of the wood yard that will improve and automate much of the operation, Cohen said.

“This will be a modernization of the process,” he said. “We still have people with picks handling the wood today. We need to change the way in which we handle those duties so that they are more efficient and effective and less onerous to employees.

“It’s not a total automation. We’re just going to do it a better way,” he said.

Some of the equipment in the operation was installed at the mill in the 1960s, he said.

Plans call for new paving and concrete work for the wood yard, and new handling and debarking equipment. Although the location of certain operations may change, the wood yard will remain in the same general location off Route 15.

The upgrade will change the wood-handling operation so that the mill can accept different sizes of pulpwood logs. The mill currently handles only four-foot logs. The project will allow them to use eight-foot logs in the papermaking process and to purchase longer lengths from suppliers.

It is an issue of cost and versatility, Cohen said. He explained that the new equipment would require less handling of the wood by employees.

“The second reason we want to have the versatility for both eight- and four-foot is that some folks that harvest for us really aren’t set up to cut into four-foot [lengths]; they really only are set up to cut the large logs,” Cohen said.

“By having the versatility of both, we have more folks capable of harvesting for us and more options if any one harvester had problems or can’t deliver or can’t harvest for us,” he said.

The mill also has been authorized to spend funds to finish the engineering and financial analysis and to answer all the corporate questions, Cohen said. The final review also will make sure that the proposed project fits with the corporate goals and objectives, he said.

It is too early in the process to determine whether the project will result in any layoffs at the mill, Cohen said.

Although the project involves a partial automation and there will be some employees still working in the wood yard, the upgrade will reduce the number of workers in that operation, he said.

“We’re going to need fewer people in the wood yard,” Cohen said. “Some of those people have other skills and we’ll look at where else we can use them. In a project like this, there’s always the question of ‘Will there be layoffs?’ We can’t assess that yet. But we’re going to try to absorb them into the mill.”

There was no indication when the mill could expect a decision from corporate headquarters. If all goes well, Cohen said, there could be some construction activity at the mill before next winter.