Wilbert Precast Inc., the Spokane-based precast concrete-products manufacturer, says it completed earlier this month a $500,000-plus project that was part of $25 million worth of upgrades at Idaho Forest Group’s Lewiston, Idaho lumber mill.  

Brock Materne, project manager for Wilbert Precast, says the project involved manufacturing concrete log-sorting “bunks,” which are cup-like berths that catch logs as they fall off the plant’s sorting line. He says the company delivered the last of the 10-foot-tall, 11-foot-wide bunks to the IFG plant in Lewiston in early August. The company started production of the bunks in January. 

Materne says that the company, which has about 140 employees, made 116 bunks for IFG. The project came about when the group purchased a new log-sorting system for the mill, Materne says. 

Wilbert Precast, which is located in a 27,000-square-foot building on 12 acres at 2215 E. Brooklyn here, also has facilities in Yakima, Wash. and Lewiston. 

The Lewiston mill’s new computerized system first scans the logs to determine the species of wood, Materne says, and then measures the length and diameter of each log. The logs then travel down the sorting line, and the computer drops them into the appropriate sorting bunk. 

The bunks made by Wilbert Precast weigh between 21,000 pounds and 38,000 pounds each, and contain an average of 1,200 pounds of rebar reinforcement, Materne says. Wilbert Precast worked with the Spokane office of Great Falls, Mont.-based engineering firm Thomas, Dean, & Hoskins Inc. to design the reinforcements. 

The complete sorting system upgrade is expected to result in higher output for IFG, Materne says. 

“The new system will about double their daily output from 550,000 board feet per day to 1 million board feet per day,” he says. 

Wilbert Precast was formed here in 1906 as a manufacturer of burial vaults under the name Spokane Concrete Co. In 1961, the company became part of the Wilbert Burial franchise and changed its name to Spokane Wilbert Vault Co. 

Over time, it began to expand its product line beyond burial vaults, and became Wilbert Precast. In addition to burial vaults, it now manufactures products such as septic tanks, drywells, wall panels, raised garden beds, and retaining-wall blocks.  

IFG purchased the Lewiston mill from Clearwater Paper Corp., of Spokane, in 2011 for about $30 million. IFG owns four other mills in Chilco, Idaho, Laclede, Idaho, Moyie Springs, Idaho, and Grangeville, Idaho. The group is headquartered in Coeur d’Alene.