Southold and Greenport residents will see more crews in their neighborhood this spring as an additional circuit is being added to ongoing system reliability work funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new circuit will be the ninth project in the Town of Southold, where FEMA-funded work began in April 2015 to improve the reliability and resiliency of the electric grid for Southold Town residents.
PSEG Long Island licensed and approved contractors will be working on this route for approximately five months. Work will include replacing existing wires, installing new and more durable poles and installing or replacing switching equipment to help reduce the number of customers affected by an outage.
Project route
The route will cover approximately three miles along an electric main line circuit. PSEG Long Island crews will be working on the following streets in the Town of Southold:
- Main Road (Route 25) north of Pipes Neck Road to north of Chapel Lane
- Main Road (Route 25) between Silvermere Road and Old Main Road
- North Road (Route 48) between Chapel Lane and Main Road
- Main Road (Route 25) between North Road (Route 48) south of Maple Lane
Project work
Specifically, PSEG will:
- Replace existing wire with more weather-resistant wire
- Install new and more durable poles in several locations
- Install and/or replace switching equipment to help reduce the number of customers affected by an outage
This project is funded through the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance Program, which was established to harden electrical distribution infrastructure against future storm damage and help restore power more quickly. In 2014, more than $729 million of federal recovery funds were secured for the Long Island Power Authority via an agreement between Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under the FEMA 406 Mitigation Program.
“Adding an additional circuit in the Town of Southold makes it one of the most active work areas for FEMA-funded reliability work,” said John O’Connell, PSEG Long Island vice president of transmission and distribution operations. “With this additional work, an increasing number of Southold residents will have the best-in-class system reliability that PSEG Long Island is continually striving to deliver.”
PSEG Long Island is committed to delivering best-in-class system reliability to our customers and to hardening the system to better withstand extreme weather like Superstorm Sandy, the utility said in a press release.
“Strengthening key electric circuits in your neighborhood will improve the reliability of the electric grid for thousands of our customers.
“We are working closely with local officials on this project, keeping them informed and working to minimize potential disruptions.”
The newly announced project will start late this month, PSEG said.
