June 17, 2009 Firm: Chip plant construction to employ locals By ANDREW J. BERNSTEIN, The Saratogian
SARATOGA SPRINGS Ever wonder what it would be like to have a kitchen floor clean enough to eat off of? Ever wonder what it would be like to have a kitchen floor so clean that putting food on it could cause catastrophic damage that would have to be undone by hours of cleaning?
Welcome to the clean room, set to be built at the heart of the planned GlobalFoundries micro-chip fabrication facility in Malta.
On Tuesday, Richard Whitney, president and CEO of M+W Zander, the architecture firm that designed the facility and will oversee construction, met with members of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce to discuss the constructions impact on the local economy.
While GlobalFoundries has previously said that supplies for manufacture would likely not be sourced locally, Whitney said that a thousand-strong work force including local and regional building trades workers would be employed during the two-year construction process that began with site work on Monday.
During the shell construction phase, during which the outside of the building will be built, Whitney said that once site work is completed and the initial utility work concludes, a work force of up to 800 will begin constructing the fabrication facilitys shell.
Service industries will see the work force coming off the site at the end of the day, Whitney said. He added that with an influx of workers from a wider region, hotels that can provide longer-term housing may also see an up-tick in business.
The interior finishing phase will see the largest influx of workers as many as 1,200, Whitney said. The interior phase will be completed in conjunction with final utility fitting, and is expected to take about eight months, beginning a year into the project.
During this phase, sales of permanent housing will likely increase, Whitney said.
The final construction phase will see tools used in the process of manufacturing microprocessors installed in the building, and will take four months. By that time, Whitney said the work force on site will have diminished, but new equipment suppliers will be setting up shop in the area, and Whitney said local service industries will continue to see greater volume.
During his remarks, Whitney also offered chamber members a detailed look at the first of three planned fabrication buildings in the Luther Forest Technology Park.
The building will be 80 feet tall and 600 feet wide and include the 300-foot-wide clean room. The foundation will require 50,000 cubic yards of concrete. The buildings plumbing, both for purified water and chemicals used in manufacturing, as well as more standard utilities, will require 75 miles of piping, and steel roof trusses are expected to weigh 2,100 tons.
To put it all together will require a huge effort five million labor hours, Whitney said.
With the microprocessor industry contemplating a conversion to new, larger, wafers (18 inches rather than the current 12-inch standard), Whitney said the entire plant is being designed so that it could be retrofitted at a later date.
We are taking technologies that have not been implemented before, Whitney said.
Once completed, Whitney said services onsite that will use local work forces will include landscaping, laundry, various cleaning services needed for the plants operations, cafeteria/catering services and security.
Businesses interested in bidding on construction contracts should contact M+W Zander at GFprocurement@mw-zander.com, or write to M+W Zander, 24 St. Martin Drive, Building 2, Unit 7, Marlborough, MA 01752.
