You may have noticed some mechanical ditch digging along our streets this past week. National Grid crews are laying down new gas line mains to replace leaky cast iron pipes, many of which are more than a half century old. The new lines are plastic and more flexible, and thus less prone to cracking when the ground shifts The new mains have narrower diameters than the old ones and are much lighter and easier to lay than heavy iron. Back in 2014 the Environmental Defense Fund carried out an intensive survey in Syracuse that identified the wide extant of leaking pipes. There were not a health hazard, but the hundreds of small leaks throughout the aged system were releasing a large amount of methane, a major cause of greenhouse gases which lead to climate change. National Grid embarked on a a 15-20 plan to replace all the old gas pipes and years by year crews are at work throughout the city.
Crews were working on Fellows Avenues south of Euclid Avenue earlier in the week and on Thursday, September 1, began work on the 100 block of Clarke Street. Eventually, new connections will be made with the lines that carry the gas into houses. We’ll have to see how the road paving looks afterward. Most likely, only the 3-4 foot strip at the edge of the roadway will be repaved, but you never know until it happens.. The National Grid guys didn’t know …they dig up the road, not pave it!
