As horrific as last Wednesday’s East Harlem gas explosion was, it served as a reminder of how volatile and vulnerable our city’s infrastructure has become.
Ironically, the blast happened a day after the release of a report declaring that the City of New York needs about $47 billion over the next five years for across-the-board upgrades to its aging infrastructure.
In “Caution Ahead,” the Center for an Urban Future found that most natural gas mains in the city are unprotected, highlycorrosive cast iron lines installed before 1960. After five decades in the ground, these lines are rotting under our feet-and, as proven last Wednesday in East Harlem, their failure can have deadly consequences.
Two companies share the responsibility for providing New York City with its natural gas: Con Edison (which has 2,234 miles of gas mains covering the Bronx, Manhattan and northern Queens) and National Grid (which has 4,128 miles of gas mains covering southern Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island).
According to the report, Con Edison’s “mains are 53 years old on average and 60 percent are composed of unprotected steel or cast iron.” The utility company “experienced 83 leaks for every 100 miles of main in 2012” and “corrosion was responsible” for 427 gas leaks that year.
National Grid, meanwhile, has mains with an average age of 57 years, and 48 percent of their lines are made of unprotected steel or cast iron. The utility had 45 leaks per 100 main miles in 2012; corrosion was the cause of 68 such leaks, it was reported.
Given the average age of their mains and the increased demand for natural gas by customers across the city, one would think Con Edison and National Grid would have shovels in the ground everywhere, upgrading its mains not only for safety’s sake but also for the sake of its customers. But the report noted that Con Edison “is targeting the replacement of an average of 30 miles of cast iron pipe each year.” There was no mention of National Grid’s main replacement program.
The 60 percent of Con Edison’s gas mains identified as unprotected amounts to 1,340 miles of pipeline. If Con Edison sticks to replacing just 30 main miles per year, it would take the utility company close to 45 years to replace all of its unprotected pipes-and by then, it figures the remaining lines in its control would need to be replaced.
Can the residents of East Harlem, Throgs Neck or Astoria afford to wait until 2059 to have their gas lines maintained? Would Con Edison wait 45 years for customers in those neighborhoods to pay their bills? Certainly not.
This is just one facet of a very troubling, very ignominious problem facing New York City, the self-proclaimed capital of the world. Its roads are shoddy; its bridges are crumbling; its electric lines are outdated; its schools are overcrowded; its subways are flooded with people and reliant upon old technology; its pipes are leaking.
Meanwhile, new projects are being developed with each passing day-from an apartment house in industrial Ridgewood to a shopping mall in Willets Point. We are supposed to be impressed by gleaming structures but ignore the rot below them.
Whether its through financial aid from the federal and state governments or public-private partnerships, New York City must act now to begin the long, expensive and necessary process of rebuilding itself from the bottom up. It’s the only way to diffuse the timebomb of structural failure ticking away before our very eyes.
