Work replacing gas mains and tie-ins in the Commonwealth Avenue neighborhood has stymied traffic and shut down streets this week — sometimes at both ends.
While some neighbors said they were concerned that the project on Summer Street would keep firefighters, police and paramedics from getting to houses on the street, public safety and National Grid officials say they know how to — and are able to — work around the construction.
"This is something we do all the time," said Fire Chief Phil Dench.
Dench said firefighters, police and the contractor keep in close contact during construction and firefighters know what roads are blocked and find ways to work around them.
If they know they can't get down a road, Dench said firefighters will find other ways to get into the neighborhood. Generally, he said, by the time an ambulance gets to one of the streets, the contractor has placed a steel plate over the work trench and paramedics can get into the job site.
Earlier this week, crews working for NEUCO — a contractor for utility giant National Grid, had shut down both ends of Summer Street, Riggs Street where it intersects summer, and tied up traffic on several other roads in the area.
It's one of four gas main projects in the city and work on the lines will wrap in March.
Emergency Medical Services coordinator Sander Shultz said he hasn't seen a single incident where firefighters couldn't get through to a house because of construction work.
"That's why we have detail (officers) out there," said Lt. John McCarthy of the Gloucester Police Department.
The detail officers he said, coordinate emergency response in the area. Those officers stay in contact with the Fire and Police Departments when streets are closed and are usually the first responders when something happens near the job site.
McCarthy said the city's public safety departments will have a way for fire engines, police officers and ambulances to get where they need to go, even if that means bringing an ambulance the wrong way down a one-way street.
As to reaching the central part of Summer Street earlier this week, emergency vehicles would have gained access via Centennial Avenue and Beacon Street, with access to and from the speedier Washington Street route blocked by construction on Mansfield and Granite streets, officials said.
The gas main construction has been going on since December, and David Graves, spokesman for National Grid said it will finish at the end of the month in the Summer Street area. The other projects on Webster, Friend and Prospect Streets will continue into mid March.
These projects, he said, are working with old mains on old narrow streets, and that sometimes shuts down traffic. The crews, Graves added, clear out as fast as they can for emergency vehicles.
"You have go and excavate where the mains are and that means disrupting traffic, and it's not the kind of work that you can do at night either," Graves said.
Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.
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