Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus said today that Burnett Construction Company of Durango, Colo., has been awarded a $4.5 million contract by the Bureau of Reclamation for construction of 40 miles of collector drains on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project near Farmington, N.M.
The contract is for work on the 10,000-acre Block No.2 of the 110,000- acre project.
When the Navajo Irrigation Project is complete, it should provide more than 6,550 farm-oriented and related jobs and an improved standard of living for more than 33,000 Navajo Indians, Commissioner of Reclamation R. Keith Higginson said.
Burnett's contract covers the construction and installation of drainage inlets, road crossings and inclined drops, as well as excavation of nearly 1 million cubic yards of soil. The Bureau engineer's estimate for the project was $3,886,920.
