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MOREHEAD CITY, N.C.-- Trucks unloaded nearly 40,000 tons of wood chips Wednesday at the state port in Morehead City.

The wood chip facility has been inactive for more than a decade. The rehabilitation of the facility has been in the works for three years due to challenges investors faced along the way.

"It provides us with another market for a product that we produce out of the woods which in turn, allows us to work all week every week as opposed to working half a week or letting people go," said Stephen Tucker of Tidewater Land and Timber.

The facility is also acting as an economic engine for many in the community.

"Directly, we are employing six new employees at the terminal. Indirectly, it's hundreds of jobs related to loggers who are out of work because of paper plants closing down or downsizing, changes in the market. So really we are hoping to put back an industry to work that has suffered through some tough economic times,” said Frank Peeples of Industrial Marine Services.

Officials from the N.C. State Ports Authority say port activities contribute to 65,000 jobs and $500 million each year in state and local tax revenues.