Construction is expected to begin later this spring on a water pipeline that will feed the Intel Corporation’s manufacturing facility in Rio Rancho.
The project is expected to cost around $32 million to build and will run from the northwest side of Albuquerque to the Rio Rancho site, which is located at 1600 Rio Rancho Boulevard SE.
The Santa Clara, California-based semiconductor chip manufacturer has entered into an agreement with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority to build the modern pipeline.
Other aspects of the project will see the installation of new casings, pumps, and well motors.
In a statement, Linda Qian, spokesperson for Intel New Mexico, said water coming from the pipeline to the Rio Rancho site will undergo a process designed to make it “ultrapure.”
Such water, Qian said, will be used to “clean the surface of the silicon wafer.”
Last spring, Intel announced that it was undertaking a $3.5 billion retrofit of its Rio Rancho facilities in order to increase the plant’s output.
That retrofit has been specifically designed to support the manufacture of a new kind of microchip technology.
At the time of that announcement, Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s chief executive officer, told the television program 60 Minutes that the company has “come up with some cool innovations that are called 3D packaging.”
Gelsinger explained that the new process means that “we don’t have just one chip that we package and deliver, but we stack chips on top of each other.”
Founded in 1968, Intel opened its Rio Rancho facilities in 1980.
If all goes well, the new pipeline should be completed and fully operational by the end of this year.
By Garry Boulard
