Gallup warns of temporary water outage on Chee Dodge Boulevard

Gallup residents and businesses along Chee Dodge Boulevard west of Mentmore Road were told to brace for a temporary water outage Wednesday, June 17, while city contractors installed a new waterline and gate valve at the SWIF New Building. The City of Gallup Water Department said the shutdown was set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but warned the work could run longer than planned.

The notice put Dallago Corporation on the job and framed the project as part of ongoing water system improvements, not an emergency break. For customers in the outage zone, that meant planning ahead for a few hours without tap water, with the disruption affecting drinking water, cooking, handwashing and any business that depends on steady service during the workday.

City officials had already posted the same project two days earlier for Monday, June 15, using the same location, time window and work description. The repeat alert suggested the installation was rescheduled or reissued, but the message to Chee Dodge Boulevard customers stayed the same: make advance arrangements and expect service to be cut off while crews completed the work safely.

The SWIF reference points to the Southwest Indian Foundation, which city documents identify as SWIF. Gallup records also show a contractual services agreement with SWIF that took effect July 1, 2024, tying the project site to a broader city relationship on that property. That matters because the outage was not just a repair in isolation. It was part of a building and infrastructure footprint that has been developing over time in this part of Gallup.

The work also fits a wider pattern of utility upgrades across the city. Gallup records show Dallago Corporation was used on an earlier waterline project on Rico Street near the city’s new fire station, another sign that the contractor has been working on incremental system improvements in Gallup rather than a single one-off fix.

The new line and gate valve should improve control and reliability at the SWIF New Building connection and may help limit future disruptions in that immediate area. Even so, the city’s separate warning that customers on the south side of Gallup could see discolored water and low pressure from June 18 through June 26 showed that water-system work was active in more than one part of town at the same time, leaving McKinley County residents with another reminder that short outages often come with long-term maintenance meant to keep the system stable.