Natural gas in Baldwin back on after crews cut line during sinkhole repair

Natural gas for nearly three-dozen households in Baldwin has been restored after crews knocked it and power offline Saturday when they struck a gas line while repairing a gaping sinkhole on Grand Avenue, officials said.

About 500 households were without power for less than two hours on Saturday morning and 35 National Grid customers were without gas after a third-party contractor making repairs to a sinkhole, at the busy intersection of Grand and Lorenz, accidentally struck a natural gas line around 4:30 a.m., according to the Nassau County executive's office and National Grid.

"There's been ongoing work at this area, working on some sewer lines and a third party contractor hit a gas main," said Wendy Frigeria, a spokesperson for National Grid.

Later Saturday, Frigeria said the company had finished all repairs and had started to restore natural gas service to customers. Chris Boyle, a spokesman for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, confirmed there had been a gas leak.

It’s not the first time residents have been inconvenienced by the sinkhole at the intersection of Grand and Lorenz avenues that Blakeman previously described as a “large infrastructure failure."

Caused by a corroded 42-inch sewer main on June 29, the sinkhole had leaked sewage into the Brookside Preserve Creek and the backyards of neighboring homes. Three homes were impacted. There were also traffic disruptions as portions of Grand Avenue were closed.

Andrea Watson, a 27-year area resident who lives two houses from the site, said a loud noise woke her up this morning.

“It sounded like a vacuum. From my understanding, it was like a geyser coming out with gas. It’s a good thing I’m not a smoker. I’m sitting out on the porch thinking this is fine, not knowing we could have all gone boom in about a minute,” Watson said Saturday morning.

She said a week before the road parted, she noticed sagging on the street, where a construction cone was first placed to divert traffic and then a large metal plate was set over it to allow vehicles to pass through.

“The road was beginning to dip, the cars were driving and dropping and you could hear the front of the car knocking. A week before it was closed down, it was sinking,” she said.

Boyle, Blakeman's spokesman, confirmed the metal plate had been placed at the location before the street collapsed.

“We’ve had it all — we’ve had loss of water, we’ve had loss of electric and loss of gas. Our greatest concern is loss of life … It’s frustrating,” Watson said.

Bancker Construction of Islip has since been handling work at the site, but they did not return messages seeking comment about who the subcontractor is.

Officials said work was expected to be completed by July 15 while a lining needed for the repair would be delivered by July 10. The sewer main issue was discovered two days before the sinkhole formed.

No injuries have been reported.