A stormwater pond off Millersburg’s new Transition Parkway reflects one of the massive buildings of the Ball Corporation’s can factory now under construction, Saturday, Nov. 8, 202.
On Saturday I took a bike ride along Conser Road in Millersburg. All the construction there makes for an impressive sight.
The impetus for this excursion into the wilds north of Albany was an email from Frank Grosso: “I’m not sure your bike takes you out to Millersburg very much but maybe you should head this way to see the huge buildings being constructed here… It’d be nice to know what the large concrete structure is going to be used for, when it will open and how many it will employ.”
The “large concrete structure” is the first thing you see. It is part of the plant the Ball Corporation is building to make aluminum cans. The site is west of Old Salem and south of Conser, across the street from the Millersburg fire station.
The company is building the can factory, a warehouse and office space. Published reports I saw put the construction cost north of $200 million. When it was announced this past summer, the plant was expected to be complete by mid-2026 and employ about 100 people.
Business Oregon, the state agency promoting economic development, said it gave Millersburg money (but not how much ) to extend utilities to the plant, and ODOT contributed $1 million toward a road. Linn County approved a 10-year exemption from property taxes.
Also on the south side of Conser Road, the city of Millersburg is building a “Linear Park” that stretches for 3,100 feet from Castillo Drive to Woods Road.
The park will consist mainly of a trail and landscaping and will serve as a buffer between the residential area north of Conser and the industries to the south. The park, too, is expected to be complete next year.
Millersburg has asked residents for suggestions of names for the new park. “Linear Park” is just temporary. The city also asked people to stay off the new 12-foot-wide trail until it is officially opened.
And on the south side of the long and skinny park, there’s is a newly constructed and almost finished road the city calls “Transition Parkway.” Presumably this road is intended to keep industrial traffic off Conser Road.
Conser Road is temporarily closed at Woods Road. To the west of the closed intersection, my ride took me to where a new access road has been built to the property where Timberlab is building a plant to manufacture its signature product, “mass timber.” This is material that can be used instead of steel to build large structures.
The Ball Corporation’s can factory and the Timberlab project were covered on this website when they were announced or just getting started. Now we see them taking shape. (hh)
Mt. Jefferson looms over the Transition Parkway Millersburg is building along with a long park on the south side of Conser Road.
One main feature of Millersburg’s Linear Park is this paved multi-use path.
Farther west on Conser Road, this is the access road to the construction site of Timberlab’s new plant to produce “mass timber.”
Wow! Thanks for all this news, Hasso. I don’t suppose Millersburg has trouble finding money to fix potholes….I doubt their roads are left to deteriorate to the point of having potholes!! It is nice to see some construction that makes sense…in stark contrast to park benches on Albany’s Water Street which do not make sense!!!
Actually, they are wanting a gas tax here too. Government always wants more of our money.
Great pictures plus a very informative story. Mt. Jefferson and a wonderful cloud formation, too.
I wonder if the aluminum can manufacturing will be similar to this drink can line
https://youtu.be/VYJ_0R14dDg
or if the cans will be more generic for other purposes?
I heard it was aluminum cups, similar to the red plastic solo cups.
https://www.ball.com/aluminumcups
I have concerns about noise and truck traffic.
Noise and traffic impacts are part of any approval process for such facilities. It is worth remembering that there were about 125 chip trucks a day arriving at the former paper mill as well as the generation and use of close to 50 megawatts of electrical power with significant noise generation from operations. Noise complaints regarding mill operations were extremely rare. Traffic issues didn’t cause many complaints either, but trucks stacked on the roadside and entering and leaving Old Salem Road were obviously impactful to non-mill traffic.
And here I was…. hoping they would be throwing up something more the commercial direction, such as a little grocery store or have a new restaurant put in. I guess not.
They are gonna tear down the corner market and build a large grocery store in its place