Navajo Transportation Complex Opens with Code Talkers Foundation Office

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

TSE BONITO, NEW MEXICO – Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly helped opened the $18.3 million eco-friendly Navajo Transportation Complex Tuesday morning.

Over 350 Walk

“This new complex is something special,”

President Shelly said before about 250 people who attended the grand opening ceremony.

The 52,800 square feet building is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified and has some of the most modern environmentally minded technology built into the design.

Solar panels supply shade and electricity, 144 wells are dug 300 feet into the ground makes use of the Earth's natural warmth to heat the building's water, and walls and floors are constructed using recycled materials like tires and glass.

LEED Certified

All the green energy technology implemented into the building brings the new NDOT building to within a few points of being a certified "platinum" LEED building, the highest designation for a LEED building.

“ Maybe the only building more environmentally friendly might be a hogan,”

the President joked.

Also, the NDOT Complex set aside an office for the Navajo Code Talkers Foundation.

“Now the foundation can get on their work of raising money for the museum,”

President Shelly said.

In addition, President Shelly said that he was excited to hear that during the construction of the building, nearly every work crew had mostly Navajo workers.

However, the land the complex sits on is state land, and President Shelly announced that he is actively working a land swap deal with the state of New Mexico.

Money to design and build the complex came from the Navajo Nation, the state of New Mexico and the federal government, which provided about $15 million of funding.

posted March 21, 2012 6:00 am edt