O&R Gas Main Relocation Project Cancelled; Route 59 Traffic to Return to Normal Tuesday Night

PEARL RIVER, NY April 21, 2008 — O&R will cancel work on its gas main relocation project on Route 59 in Central Nyack, after discovering that its gas main was not creating a drainage issue at that site.

O&R will repave the busy road Tuesday, returning it to its previous condition by the end of the day.

O&R had planned to relocate a 12-inch steel, natural gas distribution main that runs from west to east under Route 59 in Central Nyack after the NYSDOT expressed concerns about the pipe's blocking a cement box culvert and creating a drainage problem.

When O&R today excavated the area around the culvert which was jammed up with hardened mud and debris, the crew discovered that the O&R gas main ran over the top of the outside of the culvert, not obstructing the channel through the middle. Another pipe, believed to be a pipe from a local water distribution company, was running through the middle of the culvert.

That project had temporarily changed the existing traffic pattern there — about 75 feet east of the Nyack Lumber Yard — because the work required closing Rt. 59's two westbound lanes. All traffic then was rerouted into a two-way pattern on the remaining two eastbound lanes.

The work had been expected to take as long as 10 business days.