Columbia Gas Shifts Work Schedule To Focus On Elderly

ANDOVER, MA -- Columbia Gas of Massachusetts restored an online, interactive map five days after taking it offline to repair what the utility called a "data entry error." The map provides residents in Andover, Lawrence and North Andover with estimates on when they can expect gas service to be restored to their neighborhood. Thousands of Columbia Gas customers remain without heat and hot water following the Sept. 13 gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley.

The bad news, however, is that some customers may see later "relight dates" for thier home than those that were posted before the map was taken down last week. Dean Lieberman, a Columbia Gas spokesman, said the shift comes as the company tries to restore service to the most vulnerable residents in the three communities.

"Now that the map is back online, some customers may see some dates later than they had seen before. This is because we re-deployed our workforce in the past week to focus on aiding the elderly and those with disabilities and health concerns," Lieberman said. "This was a priority, in part, because of the dropping temperatures. We focused on providing the most vulnerable either temporary heating solutions or getting their homes relit and now we are returning to our block approach, and have adjusted the dates accordingly."

Customers who enter their address into the interactive map are shown a 72-hour window when Columbia expects crews to be working in their neighborhood date. The latest set of dates, the so-called relight date, is when crew should be able to reconnect individual houses.

"We recognize the difficulties these updated dates may present for some of our customers, and we are always trying to reduce the disruption to them, wherever possible. As we have said in the past, we will provide alternate housing to any affected customer who requests it, and encourage customers to call the Claims Line at 1-800-590-5571 if they want to be placed in temporary housing," Lieberman said.

Lieberman said Columbia Gas has about 4,000 workers in the Merrimack Valley working to meeting a Nov. 19 deadline to restore gas service to all of its customers. The project includes replacing 45 miles of gas transmission lines, thousands of service lines and relighting each individual house and business. The company has pulled workers from around the country in an effort to complete the unprecedented undertaking.

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File photo by Mike Carraggi/Patch.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).