Newspaper article about Lehi
sltrib.com
Sunday, August 16, 1998
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Micron Complex Facing Future of Uncertainty
BY LISA CARRICABURU
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
LEHI -- Contouring the base of Utah County's Traverse Ridge with luminous blocks of white, blue and teal, Micron Technology Inc.'s partially completed Lehi plant is an alarming 2.3 million square feet held together by gigantic quantities of concrete, rebar and steel.
A feat of modern engineering and construction, the huge structure's $2.5 billion completion price surpasses by nearly 30 percent the estimated cost of Utah's entire Interstate 15 reconstruction project.
Already, the Boise-based manufacturer of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips used in computers and other electronic devices has spent more than $600 million on the plant. The sum includes $85 million spent this year to complete a chip-testing facility just north of the plant's main fabrication area, Micron's Stanford Lockhart said.
The expense is ominous for a plant without a scheduled opening date.
Once considered Utah's greatest economic development coup for the 3,500 jobs it was expected to create, the plant's completion has been on hold since early 1996 due to poor DRAM market conditions. When construction began in 1995, DRAMs sold for about $60 each, Lockhart said. Three weeks ago, their price dropped as low as a $1.50.
Micron in June 1997 said it would open a testing facility in Lehi this summer, a plan the company then postponed in May. And now, some say Micron's June announcement that it will acquire Dallas-based Texas Instrument Inc.'s DRAM business casts new doubt on the Lehi plant's future.
So, bereft of any immediate purpose, the gigantic structure remains largely a curiosity. Passing motorists en route to Highland or Alpine slow down and stare, sometimes stopping outside tall fences to point and guess.
There's plenty to gawk at, inside and out. Micron in recent months has opened the plant to select onlookers, offering hourslong walking tours that leave engineers awestruck and others struggling to catch their breath.
The enormity of the structure is stunning.
Massive tunnels through an underground receiving area are large enough for semi-trailers to drive through and long enough to merit the use of golf-cart-like vehicles to transport workers.
Someone could get lost inside: Lockhart tells of a man believed to have been a subcontractor who lived in the plant briefly before security officers were able to find him in the building's maze of pipes and vents.
Even utilities supporting the structure are on a scale all their own, said Paul Bistline, project coordinator.
A 100-megawatt substation built behind the main structure is expandable to 154 megawatts. That is enough electricity to power a city 10 times Lehi's size, Lockhart said.
The facility is equipped to pump in the 2 million gallons of water a day used in making chips and to recycle and reuse 60 percent of that water. Its heating capacity is 12,000 boiler horsepower, its cooling capacity is 30,000 tons.
The structure is a conglomerate of utilities plants, security posts and specially designed machines, carpentry and welding shops that will be maintained on site to repair equipment.
What is more, its design and the 2,100 acres Micron owns in Utah County make the facility expandable by 50 to 100 percent, Bistline said.
By far the most unique part of the building, and that which makes it improbable that it ever will be used for anything other than making microchips, is the actual fabrication area.
Most of the building's enormous expense is contained in the section, where a clean-room environment will be carefully maintained, Bistline said.
Below an expansive, unobstructed floor is expensive, honeycomb-like construction through which all supports for machines ranging in price from $1 million to $10 million each will be threaded to conserve production space and improve efficiency.
Bistline said the fabrication area's floor is separate from the rest of the plant to reduce vibration harmful to the delicate chip-making process. Weight-bearing tiles that will cover the floor were designed specifically for use in the room.
''If you took $100 bills and lined the walls and floors of this room, it still wouldn't be enough to pay for it,'' he said.
Micron employs about 200 engineers, information-system professionals, contractors and administrative personnel in Lehi, a number Lockhart said is expected to drop soon because some are opting to take jobs in Boise while the project is on hold.
Remaining employees, however, are optimistic about Micron's intentions for Lehi.
''None of us would be here if we didn't have a positive vision for the future,'' he said.
Lockhart said he views the Texas Instruments (T.I.) deal as potentially beneficial to Lehi because it will give Micron a 17 percent share of the worldwide DRAM market, improving its earning potential.
Once Micron remodels T.I. facilities to make use of its technology and efficiency measures, it may be necessary to open Lehi's testing facility.
And one day, the company will need to begin making chips in Lehi, Lockhart said.
Others remain skeptical.
While he agrees Micron's future will improve, New York City-based Needham & Co. analyst A.A. LaFountain said the Lehi plant's future still is uncertain.
He said the T.I. deal bodes poorly for Lehi.
Part of the deal calls for T.I. to give Micron $750 million to bring technology in its newly acquired facilities up to Micron standards.
It is a bad sign, LaFountain said, that Micron has a ''mansion'' in Lehi, but is opting instead to move forward with a ''fixer-upper.''
''It says the company cannot afford to move into its mansion,'' he said.
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c Copyright 1998, The Salt Lake Tribune
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