Rye Brook approves extended hours, parking suspensions for Con Edison gas-main upgrade

Rye Brook trustees on Tuesday approved extended construction hours, temporary suspension of alternate-side parking and limited use of village streets for staging to accommodate Con Edison's multi-block gas-main replacement project.

Con Edison representatives told the board the project will replace a low-pressure main with a medium-pressure main on Hillcrest Avenue and parts of Woodland Avenue, Whittemore and adjacent blocks, and could take about three months from the anticipated start in early June. The company requested Monday-through-Saturday work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (no work on holidays and not during the Port Chester High School July 4 fireworks event) to accelerate the schedule and lessen residents' disruption.

The move matters because crews will install a parallel main, then transfer customers one by one from the old main to the new line in scheduled events that require short outages. Con Edison said full transfers will be scheduled and that gas service would be shut off only for the short, planned transfer (the company estimated roughly an eight-hour window for a transfer event). Where older steel service lines exist they said they will replace them with plastic as part of the work.

Board members pressed Con Edison on access to homes, staging, traffic control and timing. Public works staff and Con Edison representatives said flaggers and, where necessary, police traffic control would be used to keep traffic moving and ensure EMS, fire and school buses have access. Con Edison said it expects to stage pipe and equipment in the roadway where needed and prefers staging on Woodland Avenue; it will try to deliver pipe only on installation days to limit the parked equipment footprint.

Trustees also discussed local schedule conflicts: the project overlaps the July Fourth fireworks at nearby Port Chester High School, which draws heavy traffic. Con Edison and village officials agreed to coordinate and to clear equipment from streets for the event if required. The company said it will plate open excavations overnight, use cold-patch or temporary paving at the end of each work day, and provide a local on-site contact for residents.

After that discussion the board voted to extend construction hours Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., except holidays and the July 4 fireworks event; suspend alternate-side parking on the affected blocks and permit limited use of streets for staging, subject to coordination with the superintendent of public works. The resolution also requires Con Edison to supply a named local contact, phone and email for resident communications. Roll call was recorded as: Trustee Epstein, yes; Trustee Heizer, yes; Trustee Merlino, yes; Mayor Klein, yes.

Con Edison said the work will mostly keep the existing main in service while crews install a new line alongside it, then cut over services in planned events. Where practical crews will replace service piping (steel to plastic) during the transfers. Officials advised residents to expect short delays accessing driveways when crews are working in front of homes.

The board had no further formal conditions beyond requiring resident notifications and coordination with Michael Nowak, the village contact for the project. Con Edison and village staff said notices to affected residents would be issued after the board meeting and that crews will be on-site daily during the active installation phases.

Residents should expect staged work on Hillcrest and Woodland starting in early June, temporary traffic changes, and brief, scheduled service interruptions when individual homes are transferred to the new main. For questions the village will publish a Con Edison local contact as part of the community notices.