National Grid plans to begin a new gas main installation project along a section of East Main Street in Riverhead next week. Traffic flow and parking will be impacted, officials said.
Contractors will replace more than 4,550 feet of gas main and upgrade 35 individual customer service lines along the state road from Peconic Avenue to Fishel Avenue, according to a National Grid flyer posted on the town’s website on Thursday. The project is expected to take upwards of two months to complete, depending on weather conditions and scheduling, with the final restoration of the roadway occurring in the spring.
The utility company’s contractors are planning to start roadwork for the project on Monday, according to Wendy Frigeria, a National Grid spokesperson. The work was set to start this week, but was delayed by inclement weather.
The work is expected to impact both traffic and parking on road. Flaggers will be on site during construction to allow for two-way traffic, Frigeria said. Parking spots on Main Street in the immediate area of construction will be closed, she said.
Daytime work is expected to only take a week, occuring between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and covering the length of East Main Street from the railroad tracks to the Long Island Aquarium, according to Frigeria.
The majority of the work, which will be from the aquarium to just beyond the intersection of Peconic Avenue and Main Street, will occur overnight “to allow for business to operate freely throughout the day,” Frigeria said. Night work is anticipated to start on Sunday, Oct. 8, and occur between Sunday and Thursday starting at 9:30 p.m., Frigeria said.
“We will work with each business and homeowner to schedule a convenient time for our team to switch each individual service from the old main to the new main,” Frigeria said in an email. “These interruptions are typically of a short duration (an hour or two at most) but differ depending on each individual’s unit / service. We will always try to work with the customer to avoid an interruption during busy hours.”
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