Opened in 2017, Hankook Tire’s Tennessee Plant in Clarksville is doubling its footprint and adding production lines with a Clayco-led expansion project.
Rendering courtesy Clayco
Clayco is constructing an expansion at Hankook Tire’s Tennessee Plant, aiming to double the manufacturing facility with the addition of 2.2 million sq ft of new space.
In a Feb. 20 announcement, Clayco says the expansion will include a multistory, structural-steel mixing building. Other work includes site enhancements, utility installations, intricate paving as well as deep foundations and specialized equipment pits. The work also calls for ASRS mat foundations, an IMP exterior, CMU-IMP interior walls and TPO roofing.
Clayco broke ground on the project in December with completion set for 2026.
The schedule is currently being coordinated with Hankook’s equipment deliveries, says Daniel Botts, Clayco project manager for the Hankook expansion, and will selectively accelerate as needed to accommodate Hankook’s startup schedule while keeping the project budget in mind.
Lamar Johnson Collaborative is supporting the project with architectural services. ICT Thomasson is performing mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, with Tucker Jones as structural engineer and TTL as civil engineer.
The project’s cost is confidential, according to Clayco, but an August 2022 statement from Hankook says the company’s board of directors approved a $1.6 billion investment to expand its Tennessee Plant in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, where Hankook Tire America Corp. is headquartered. The expansion brought Hankook’s total investment in the area to $2.2 billion. Hankook’s Tennessee Plant began production in 2017, and has been manufacturing more than 5.5 million tires each year.
That investment includes a previously planned Phase 2 expansion to double the facility’s production capacity of passenger car and light truck tires, and adds a new Phase 3, which will add capacity for the company’s first production of Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) tires.
In the August announcement, Rob Williams, Hankook’s senior vice president for North America Sales, says the expansion is a vital step in the company’s medium truck market, set to make the company one of only a few manufacturers of TBR tires in the U.S.
Derek Lacey, Southeast Regional Editor at the Engineering News-Record, is a seasoned journalist with a broad range of experience. A graduate of Auburn University, his work has earned awards in everything from investigative and feature reporting to multimedia and photography. Derek is based in Huntsville, Ala.