Thursday, October 1, 2026
As National Grid replaces gas main lines in Rockville Centre, the power company at the same time is, as Mayor Francis Murray said frankly at a village board meeting earlier this month, “cutting our roads up.”
A portion of Maple Avenue in particular is “a disgrace,” Murray said. The good news, he added, is that National Grid will be repaving the roads at its own expense. “They promised me before Labor Day, so let’s just say before Thanksgiving,” he told the packed courtroom at Village Hall.
National Grid has been upgrading gas service infrastructure in its coverage areas, and is now working on various streets in Rockville Centre. After marking up the street to identify underground wires or pipes, the area is excavated, and a new gas main is installed. Individual homes can then be reconnected to the newer high-pressure mains.
“While we’re doing this, we’ll need your patience and understanding,” states a National Grid worker in an informational video on its website. “…There will be some disruption to traffic in your neighborhood when we dig up your street and an interruption to your gas service while we work on the section connecting your house to the gas main.”
If the service line running to a resident’s home is old, National Grid will upgrade it, the video said, which could require excavation and pipe work on the homeowner’s property.
Opening of the roads sometimes take the shape of trenches or holes. When National Grid opens the road to replace a gas main, the village anticipates that it will be fully repaired within the same construction season, which ends in mid-November, according to Village Spokeswoman Julie Grilli. She added that the village carefully monitors National Grid’s work.
Gas mains on Maple Avenue, which also includes work on Powell Avenue, Forest Place, Liberty Avenue and Brower Avenue, have been installed, as crews are still replacing and upgrading individual gas services, according to Wendy Ladd, a spokesman for National Grid. The project is expected to be complete as early as the end of July, she added, and restoration of the roads will follow shortly after.
A main replacement project involving Jefferson Avenue, Monroe Street and Water Street is near completion, Ladd said. Another main replacement affecting Hollywood Court, Midwood Road, Hempstead Avenue, Beverly Road and Lehigh Court is expected to be completed in September, she added, but some sections will be finished prior and issued for paving sooner. Finally, similar work on Dogwood Lane is scheduled to begin on June 26, and is expected to last a few weeks.
National Grid has coordinated to do its work in conjunction with the village’s paving schedule, Ladd said.
