October 2025 Vol. 80 No. 10
Features
Navajo-Gallup project brings long-awaited water infrastructure to New Mexico
By Corinna Hunt, Contributing Editor
(UI) — In New Mexico’s San Juan River Basin, more than a third of Navajo Nation households must haul water to their homes, according to a 2021 news release from the United States Bureau of Reclamation. Recently, the Bureau addressed this challenge by partnering with SJ Louis Construction Inc. of Rockville, Minn., as well as a variety of other companies for different project segments, to complete the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project by 2029.
“The Bureau really takes pride in the fact that they’re delivering clean, sustainable water to the Navajo Nation, which has historically been underserved,” said SJ Louis President Bob Schueller.
SJ Louis was awarded two of the project segments: the Navajo Code Talkers Sublateral, or Reaches 12.1 and 12.2, as well as 4A and 4B, with a combined total contract value over $142.8 million.
SJ Louis’ first project, Reaches 12.1 and 12.2, was awarded in December 2021 and was completed in May, Schueller said.
The 17-mile right of way, which consists of five miles of 30-inch pipeline and 12 miles of 24-inch, is located roughly parallel to New Mexico State Highway 264 between Yah-Ta-Hey, N. Mex., and Window Rock, Ariz.
Additional sublateral project components included a 1.5-million-gallon ground level storage tank and a surge tank 8 feet in diameter by 37 feet high, as well as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition equipment and fiber optic cabling.
Altogether, “there were five 30-inch HDDs involved, ranging in lengths of 1,000 to 2,000 feet,” Schueller said. “The project had several geological areas of concern, whether mountainous areas or wash crossings (lowland), where all the stormwater will run, so good trenchless partners were essential.”
SJ Louis and its affiliate company completed seven 42- and 48-inch bores on the project. One bore was added through a value-engineering proposal SJ Louis offered during the project, “highlighting the advantages of having affiliated trenchless companies offering a combined suite of installation methods, all working together towards the same goal,” Schueller said.
More HDD
The company’s 12.1 and 12.2 project proposal to the Bureau included multiple redesigns of HDD crossings with different materials for consideration and different geometries on the HDDs, allowing for a more efficient and cost-effective solution. In total, the alternates and value-engineering options included in S.J. Louis’ proposal represented over $1 million in savings.
“What makes this project so interesting is the scale and complexity, the number of HDDs and bores and the miles of pipeline installed, completed through our affiliated companies,” Schueller said. “By utilizing our HDD and boring affiliates, we were able to streamline scheduling, maintain tighter control over the work and deliver a more coordinated effort overall.
“This approach allowed us to present the Bureau with a truly collaborative and competitive proposal. Even during the proposal phase, our teams worked together to identify cost-saving alternatives, particularly in the HDD scope – taking a proactive approach to pricing and value-engineering that benefits the project from the very start.”
From start to finish, there was a lot of collaboration between SJ Louis and partners, which also allowed SJ Louis to oversee every aspect of pipe installation.
“The embedment around the open-cut pipe was done using a controlled low-strength material, and that material was manufactured onsite by a long-time subcontractor of ours, Bison Contracting” Schueller said. “The amount of material needing to be imported and exported was significantly reduced by using onsite material to manufacture the CLSM bedding, which conformed with project specifications.”
Construction continues
SJ Louis’ second contract for a nearly 18-mile portion of 42-inch steel pipe, Reaches 4A and 4B, was awarded in March 2023 and is nearly complete as well, he said.
Reach 4A is a 7-mile pipeline beginning at the San Juan Lateral Water Treatment Plant and extending south to the Tsé Da’azkání Pumping Plant. Reach 4B is a 10.9-mile pipeline between the Tsé Da’azkání plant and the Tó Ałts’íísí Pumping Plant to the south.
These Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project contracts were SJ Louis’ first federal government contracts, and the experience – while positive – has been a learning curve because federal contracting operates differently than most municipalities.
The bureau’s Contractor Performance Assessment Report (CPAR) rating system is very structured and conducted once each year, Schueller said. The most recent report, assessing the company’s performance from Dec. 4, 2024, through May 16, indicates the company received high marks in each area of evaluation: "satisfactory" in cost control and small business subcontracting; “very good” in quality and schedule; “exceptional” in management; and noted, “Overall, the project went very well and SJL was good to work with.”
“Throughout the project, we did nothing but improve,” Schueller said. “Overall, the projects were a success and we’re happy with the relationships we formed with the Bureau.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
S.J. Louis Construction, Inc., (320) 685-1198, sjlouis.com
Atlas Trenchless, (320) 249-8410, atlas-trenchless.com
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