SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a contract for construction of Reach 12B, a feature of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project, totaling $3.6 million to Weeminuche Construction Authority of Towaoc, Colorado.
Reach 12B, located on the San Juan Lateral of the project, consists of a 36-inch-diameter pipeline extending approximately 1.7 miles from Tohlakai Pumping Plant, a project feature currently under construction, to Reach 13, another project feature currently being completed by the City of Gallup.
When the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is completed in 2024, the San Juan Lateral, including Reach 12B, will convey treated project water to Navajo communities as well as to the City of Gallup. In the interim, Reach 12B will provide a key connection that will enable the Navajo Nation to deliver non-project water from groundwater wells owned by the Nation on the Navajo Reservation to Navajo communities in the surrounding area, meeting critical and immediate water needs in those communities.
Construction of the pipeline, located approximately 8 miles north of Gallup, NM, in McKinley County, is expected to take 9 months to complete.
Construction of the overall project is on schedule for completion in 2024. In October, 2011, the project was identified by the Obama Administration as one of the 14 high-priority infrastructure projects to be expedited through the permitting and environmental review process to support job creation.
Project participants, in addition to the Navajo Nation, include the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the city of Gallup, in conjunction with Reclamation, the state of New Mexico, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Indian Health Service. The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project is the cornerstone of the San Juan River Basin in New Mexico Navajo Nation Water Rights Settlement Agreement.
Source: Bureau of Reclamation
