LAWRENCE, Mass., Dec. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Columbia Gas
of Massachusetts and state and
local officials today announced that restoration of gas service to
residences and businesses in the Merrimack Valley is substantially
complete.
With natural gas service restored to 98 percent of residential
and business customers, the project has reached a major milestone
and is in the process of entering the next phase of the restoration
effort.
"Substantially complete" means that nearly all residences and
businesses have heat, hot water and working gas appliances. There
are less than 200 remaining customers who decided to
"self-mitigate," or complete necessary assessments and
installations themselves on their own timeline, independent of
Columbia Gas contractors, or customers who have extenuating
circumstances. Columbia Gas continues to offer its services to
these customers should they request it. For the past two weeks, the
team has been largely focused on supporting self-mitigators and
customers with complex issues, and has invited all remaining
customers with outage issues to contact Columbia Gas contractors to
facilitate work before contractor resources ramp down.
Since September 13 the team has
worked to restore heat and hot water to nearly
7,500 residential and business meters, and in the process has
installed nearly 18,500 new appliances and pieces of equipment
(i.e., boilers, furnaces, rangers, and dryers). The construction
team replaced nearly 44 miles of gas main lines throughout the
three communities and installed over 5,000 service lines. More
than 5,000 workers, ranging from plumbers to linguists and Columbia
Gas employees and contractors, have worked on this operation to
process claims, coordinate alternative housing and do the
construction work, repairs and replacements required to restore
heat and hot water.
As the restoration project transitions into the next phase,
Columbia Gas, and NiSource Inc., its parent company, will continue
to have resources in the area to provide continued support and
services for its customers in the three affected communities,
including providing support to self-mitigating customers and
administering an equipment repair plan for new Columbia
Gas-installed appliances and equipment at no cost to customers.
Columbia Gas and state and local officials continue to work on a
comprehensive plan to address remaining concerns for the next phase
of the restoration.
"Our administration is committed to supporting the residents
and businesses impacted by this tragic explosion, and while we have
reached an important milestone to restore gas service there is much
work to be done," said Governor Charlie Baker. "We will continue to support
the local officials and work with Columbia Gas as this project
transitions, and appreciate the strong collaboration from this
entire team to support the Merrimack Valley. Lt. Governor
Polito and I would like to thank Joe
Albanese for his critical contributions to execute this
creative recovery process and look forward to his continued work to
help people get back to normalcy."
"I am grateful for the efforts of the team that we assembled;
more than 5,000 people strong that have dedicated themselves to
this mission around the clock. For so many of them, this is more a
humanitarian effort than just a project. They have worked
tirelessly, seven days a week, to get thousands of affected
Merrimack Valley families and residents home, and hundreds of
businesses open," said Joe
Albanese, Chief Recovery Officer, who was appointed by the
Governor. "We are continuing to work with the
'self-mitigators' to help them restore gas service through their
own vendors and with residents who have extenuating circumstances.
We encourage 'self-mitigators' to work with Columbia Gas
contractors as we ramp down our resources and transition to a
different phase of this project. I appreciate the strength of the
community, the local leadership provided by the Mayor and Town
Managers, and the resiliency of the people of the Merrimack
Valley."
"This is a major milestone, but make no mistake: Columbia Gas
is here for the long-haul, and there is still more work to
do," said Pablo Vegas,
Executive Vice President for NiSource and Chief Restoration
Officer. "This has been a tremendous hardship on so many of
our customers and the community, and I commit Columbia Gas will
continue to support the recovery of the region. I want to
personally thank all of the state and local officials, our mutual
aid partners, the thousands of workers, and the entire community
for their support and steadfast work on this project. And most
importantly, I greatly appreciate the patience and understanding of
our customers through what we know has been an extraordinarily
difficult and disruptive period of time."
"The top priority for me has always been to get residents
back into their homes with heat and hot water, and today, that is
where we are," said Dan
Rivera, Mayor of Lawrence.
"The recovery process under Governor Baker, led by Joe Albanese, has been successful in getting
residents back in their homes weeks before the deadline. This gives
us much to be thankful for."
"This has been a long and at times very frustrating recovery
for both the residents and businesses of Andover," said Andrew Flanagan, Andover Town
Manager. "I want to thank them for both their patience and
resiliency throughout this process. I am pleased that this phase of
the process is substantially complete and look forward to working
to ensure that Columbia Gas fulfills all of its outstanding
obligations to the ratepayers of Andover and Merrimack Valley moving
forward."
"After ensuring that the gas distribution system was made
safe, the focus turned to making every impacted North Andover home livable and every impacted
North Andover business
viable," said Andrew
Maylor, North Andover Town Manager. "Although the
gas restoration process was complicated, today we can say that the
work to achieve those goals is substantially complete. It should be
noted that the leadership of the Chief Recovery Officer was a
primary reason we have been able to achieve this
milestone."
Key Facts and Figures
- Approximately 7,500 residential and business meters relit.
- 18,421 pieces of equipment and appliances installed.
- 43.5 miles of gas main lines and 5,086 service lines installed,
and 12.3 miles of main line polyethylene pipe requalified.
- Approximately 25,000 smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
distributed.
- More than 5,000 workers worked on the restoration project,
including contractors, subcontractors, linguists, plumbers, and
tradesmen. This included an average of 3,000 contractors per day.
This also included an average of 1,000 Columbia Gas and NiSource
employees per day.
- 24,417 claims received, with 17,227 resolved to date.
$77.96 million has been paid out to
customers, including $19.47 million
to business customers.
- More than 2,200 families, approximately 8,000 individuals,
utilized Columbia Gas-and MEMA-provided temporary housing.
About Columbia Gas of Massachusetts
Columbia Gas of
Massachusetts delivers clean,
affordable and efficient natural gas to over 320,000 natural gas
customers in southeastern Massachusetts, the greater Springfield area and the Merrimack
Valley. Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, the company is the
largest gas-only provider in the state and is one of NiSource's
seven regulated utility companies. NiSource (NYSE:NI) is one
of the largest fully-regulated utility companies in the United States, serving approximately 3.5
million natural gas customers and 500,000 electric customers
through its local Columbia Gas and NIPSCO brands. More
information about Columbia Gas of Massachusetts is available at
www.ColumbiaGasMA.com.
About NiSource
NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) is
one of the largest fully-regulated utility companies in the
United States, serving
approximately 3.5 million natural gas customers and 500,000
electric customers across seven states through its
local Columbia Gas and NIPSCO brands. Based
in Merrillville, Indiana, NiSource's approximately
8,000 employees are focused on safely delivering reliable and
affordable energy to our customers and communities we
serve. NiSource has been designated a World's Most
Ethical Company by the Ethisphere Institute since
2012, is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability - North America
Index and was named by Forbes magazine as the
top-rated utility among America's Best Large Employers in 2017.
Additional information about NiSource, its investments in
modern infrastructure and systems, its commitments and its local
brands can be found at www.nisource.com. Follow us
at www.facebook.com/nisource,
www.linkedin.com/company/nisource or www.twitter.com/nisourceinc.
NI-F
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SOURCE Columbia Gas of Massachusetts