Procter & Gamble breaks ground in West Virginia for just its second new US plant since 1971

Procter & Gamble has broken ground on a $500 million West Virginia manufacturing hub expected to bring 700 new jobs to the state's Washington, D.C., bedroom community.

The Cincinnati-based consumer-goods manufacturer is building the vast plant in Berkeley County outside Martinsburg. Some 1,000 temporary construction positions are expected leading up to the facility's 2017 opening.

West Virginia economic development officials consider the plant along the Interstate 81 corridor a big win. It will be just the second plant built by the company in the U.S. since 1971.

The company says the new site will be within a day's travel distance of nearly 80 percent of consumers in the eastern United States.