New sewer piping is a disruptive force

When podiatrist Al Musella looks out from his Peninsula Boulevard office in Hewlett and sees the road being ripped up he doesn’t see the new sewer piping being installed by Nassau County, he sees his practice being interrupted.

Noting that a majority of his patients are elderly and walking is difficult it is hard for them to maneuver around the obstacles created by the $13,513,313.33 project that the county is currently doing through West Babylon-based A.L.A.C Contracting Corp.

“It looks like they spend about two days in an area, where they block driveways so people cannot get in and out,” Dr. Musella said. ”The side streets in our area are a maze.”

What the county is doing with that more than $13 million dollars is installing approximately brand new 14,100 linear feet of 20-inch force main piping connecting the Inwood Pump Station to Harris Avenue and Peninsula Boulevard.

In addition, a new interceptor manhole is being constructed to connect the new 20-inch force man with the existing 60-inch interceptor pipe at the intersection of Harris Avenue and Peninsula Boulevard. “An interceptor sewer is basically just a larger sewer wherein smaller lines converge,” said County Spokesman Michael Martino Jr.

Martino said that the work is currently being done from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the weekdays and the main force piping work should be completed by June. Work will stop for about two months while the construction of the interceptor manhole at Harris Avenue takes place. The project was also interrupted on Jan. 14, when a water main broke and needed to be repaired.

“The entire length of the force main requires final repavement restoration,” Martino said. “We believe the restoration work should be completed by September.”