Lauderdale County supervisors took a big step toward beginning construction on the Loblolly Industries project Monday night.

Building the new $150 million plant is a major undertaking. A lot of construction companies are vying to participate in it. Twenty-six contractors expressed interest in doing the dirt work on the project and 12 of them submitted bids.

Eutaw Construction is the apparent low bidder. It placed a bid of just over $3.5 million to do the work at the Sonny Montgomery Industrial Park in Marion, Miss. That money is a fraction of the $20 million being put it into the project by the state and county, but it's money officials say will be well worth it.

"It's an exciting opportunity for us to provide high tech jobs to the general public," said Terrell Temple, a consulting engineer.

Loblolly will be the first plant of its kind in the eastern U.S. to do a process called Scrim-Tech. That process takes young pines and binds them together to create lumber.

"We know there are other products in the marketplace that provide a similar product to the construction industry," said Wade Jones, president of East Mississippi Business Development Corporation. "But those products do not have the strength, nor are they priced as competitively as Scrim-Tech will be."

The low bid is expected to be accepted by the county board of supervisors at its next meeting. The winning company will begin work immediately, and have 120 days to complete that work. The plant is expected to open late next year.