Con Ed High Pressure Gas Line Upgrade Coming To Roosevelt Island, Main Street Construction Starting Very Soon - Watch Con Ed Reps And Residents Discuss Gas Upgrade At July 23 Town Hall Meeting

As previously reported, Con Ed will soon begin removing the aging Roosevelt Island gas lines beneath Main Street and replacing them with High Pressure Gas Lines. At the same time, Roosevelt Landings, Island House and Westview will be doing building facade work. The combination of Con Ed Gas line upgrade, building facade work and Cornell Tech construction deliveries will make for a great deal of disruptions on Main Street.

Prior to issuing any permits for the Con Ed gas line uprade, Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Charlene Indelicato insisted that Con Ed hold a Town Hall Meeting to inform the Roosevelt Island community about:

... the timelines of the scheduled work , benefits of the projects to be undertaken and most importantly the safety issues

Residents will be given the opportunity to ask questions. ....

Last Thursday, July 23, Con Edison representatives spoke to approximately 20 Roosevelt Island residents about the upcoming High Pressure Gas Upgrade.

Image From July 23 Con Ed Roosevelt Island Gas Line Upgrade Power Point Presentation

Con Ed Director of Manhattan Public Affairs Caroline Kretz promised to keep disruptions to a minimum and added that Roosevelt Island residents have no better advocates than RIOC.



According to the Con Ed representatives:

Click On Image To Enlarge

Con Edison will be upgrading the gas system on Roosevelt Island:
• Replace existing gas risers
• Install new gas mains along Main Street
• Connect existing and new services

Project Benefits
• Improves system reliability
• Replaces aging infrastructure
• Reduces future maintenance for gas facilities
• Increases gas capacity for current and future gas demand

Project Schedule

All start dates are subject to RIOC’s approval

Phase 1 (risers)
• Start Date: Late July 2015
• Duration: 2 - 3 months
• Hours: 7PM to 7AM*, Monday - Friday
* For the first five days, crews will be working from 9AM to 2:30PM.

Phase 2 (gas main)
• Start Date: Early August 2015
• Duration: 3 - 4 months
• Hours:
– North and south of PS 217: 8AM to 4PM, Monday - Friday
– In the vicinity of PS 217: 9AM to 2:30PM, Monday – Friday

Phase 3 (tie-ins)
• Start Date: Spring 2016
• Duration: Periodic work throughout the Spring

Schedule is subject to change. We will notify the community of any changes.

Click On Image To Enlarge

1. Riser replacement work will start in late July and is estimated to be completed by Fall 2015.
2. Gas main work will start in early August in front of the FDNY building and move south.
3. Work will be performed around planned school activities.
4. Work will resume from the south in front of Blackwell House and move north towards the risers. This is estimated to be completed by Winter 2015.

Next Spring, we will be back to tie the new gas facilities in.

Mitigation Strategies
• 2 traffic lanes will be maintained for most sections of Main Street
• Noise panels/barriers
• Alternatives to back-up alarms for vehicles
• Flag men for pedestrians and vehicles
• Steel plates for open excavations
• Wetting down of dust
• Air monitoring

Communications Efforts
• Work notices
• Residents
• Building representatives
• RIOC
• Elected officials
• Community Board 8
• Other stakeholders

Here's video of the July 23 Roosevelt Island Con Ed Gas Upgrade Town Hall Meeting.

Part 1 - Ms. Kretz introduced the presentation and gave an overview.



Part 2 - Con Ed Gas Engineering rep Tom Femia, Construction Manager Michael Lombardi and Energy Services Manager John Romano described the project. Mr Femia reports that Con Ed will replace gas line coming from Queens, add a second gas line from Manhattan and upgrade 3 thousand feet of gas pipes underneath Main Street.



Part 3 -Mr Romano talked about the schedule of work asserting that the gas upgrade work had to be completed by October 2015. Several residents were skeptical that the October deadline was necessary and worried that the gas line upgrade schedule combined with the building facade work and other construction would cause unnecessary disruptions for the Roosevelt Island community.

Mr Romano said that multiple Roosevelt Island customers were seeking the gas upgrade but other than the Octagon building, declined to name those customers.



Part 4 - RIOC Director Michael Shinozaki was in the audience and summarized the project.



Part 5 - Con Ed reps answered questions about safety, air quality and employee parking issues due to the gas line upgrade construction work. Also, methods for future communications with the community.



Here's the Con Ed Roosevelt Island High Pressure Gas Upgrade Power Point presentation.

ConEd Roosevelt Island Gas Upgrade

The Roosevelt Island Con Ed High Pressure Gas upgrade will not begin until permit is issued by RIOC.