Luther Forest road work under way

State funding $33M project at tech campus in Malta, which may become home of AMD computer chip factory

By LARRY RULISON, Business writer

First published: Saturday, May 3, 2008 MALTA -- Construction has started on the main entrance and roads leading into the Luther Forest Technology Campus, which may one day be home to a $3.2 billion computer chip factory.

Last month the Malta Town Board approved a $33 million contract for Rifenburg Construction Inc. of Troy to build 5.5 miles of roads at Luther Forest. The money is coming from the state.

Michael Relyea, executive director of the Luther Forest Technology Campus Economic Development Corp., the nonprofit that operates Luther Forest, says road construction started within the last week or so. The project will be spread over two years.

"We're getting into significant construction," he said.

Luther Forest is a 1,350-acre, mostly undeveloped, tract of forest being marketed as a business park for semiconductor manufacturing. Parts of the site once were used for military missile testing.

State officials have offered Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the world's second-largest microprocessor manufacturer, $1.25 billion in incentives to locate its next factory at the park.

AMD has said it wants to build the facility, but has yet to officially commit. The state's offer is good until July 31, 2009.

The work being done now is just north of Round Lake, about a quarter mile east of Route 9 on Route 67 going east toward Stillwater.

Relyea said the park's entrance will have a four-lane road, with a 10-foot grass divider. There will be a lot of trees.

"That will be a beautiful entrance," Relyea said. "We're trying to design a college campus setting."

The exact design of the entrance, including signage, is still being developed.

"We're in the middle of doing our landscape design plan," he said.

Relyea said he does not know where trucks serving the park's businesses would enter and exit, although he said a service entrance will be created. Most people, he said, would get to the park either from Exit 11 or Exit 12.

The Round Lake Bypass, a state project that will allow traffic coming off Exit 11 on the Northway to circumvent the historic village of Round Lake, will connect to Route 9 close to where the Luther Forest entrance will be.

Currently, the main entry into Luther Forest is Hermes Road, which comes into the park off Dunning Street north of the park and is best accessed from Exit 12.

The new entrance is at the southern end of Luther Forest, best accessed by Exit 11.

Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.