On Ford's massive BlueOval Battery Park Michigan project in Marshall, Detroit-based builder Walbridge is leaning on a Grand Rapids startup to keep construction debris out of the dump. The contractor has begun using an AI-driven waste-sorting system from Woodchuck.ai to handle the large volumes of material pouring off the $2.5 billion battery campus as crews race ahead. Company officials say the tech is already diverting thousands of tons of wood, cardboard and other materials from landfills while turning site debris into usable biomass and other recycled streams and helping lower disposal costs.
The partnership first surfaced in reporting by Crain's Detroit Business, which detailed how Walbridge is tapping Woodchuck's platform to track and validate material diversion directly on site. That coverage cast the effort as a homegrown pairing: a Detroit contractor teaming up with a Grand Rapids climate-tech startup to wrestle with the waste from a mega-size manufacturing build.
How the AI system works on site
Woodchuck's platform uses cameras, sensors and machine learning to identify recoverable wood and other materials, pull them out of mixed loads, and route them into processing or recycling channels. According to a press release via Business Wire, the company converts reclaimed wood into biomass fuel at its Grand Rapids facility and positions that site as an AI innovation center for scaling the technology.
Early results and projected diversion
Walbridge says the system reached about 40 percent of its projected material-savings target in the first three months and has already kept thousands of tons from the landfill, a figure noted in industry coverage. Over the life of the BlueOval build, the partnership aims to divert roughly 8,000 tons of wood and another 1,000 tons of cardboard, plastic and metal, according to reporting by ConstructionOwners and industry roundups.
Where this fits in Ford's plan
The BlueOval Battery Park Michigan project is a major element of Ford's EV strategy and is being built in Marshall at serious scale. Walbridge says on its project page that the site is expected to add about 35 gigawatt-hours of battery capacity and could support production for roughly 400,000 vehicles, while ABC57 has reported that the plant is expected to create about 1,700 jobs once production starts. Together, Walbridge and ABC57 provide the background on the build and why contractors are pressing for every efficiency gain they can find.
Walbridge's leadership has framed the collaboration as both an environmental and operational win. "Our partnership with Woodchuck has been a game-changer," Walbridge Group Vice President Ross Linton said in a company release cited by ConstructionOwners, adding that the data from the system helps project teams plan and adapt material flows in real time.
A model for reuse and clean energy
Woodchuck's Grand Rapids plant, which opened with backing from state and industry partners, can process large volumes of wood into biomass that partners like NorthStar Clean Energy can turn into renewable power, local outlets have reported. The startup has also been building investor support and customer pilots across Michigan, signaling that the approach could be scaled to other megaprojects. WGVU has covered Woodchuck's funding and expansion, alongside additional reporting from Business Wire on the company's AI-powered biomass facility.
As battery plants and other industrial megaprojects proliferate across the Midwest, contractors say tech like Woodchuck's offers a way to cut costs, improve reporting and shrink a project's carbon footprint. Industry newsletters and associations have taken note of the Walbridge pilot as an early example of construction technology delivering measurable savings on large builds. NECA highlighted the case in an industry roundup this month.
