LANSINGBURGH, N.Y. -- Frozen gas pipes are the last thing people are thinking about with temperatures in the 70s and 80s this week. But some Lansingburgh residents won't have to worry about frozen pipes, even when the temperatures dip next winter.
"For one day. The gas was down for about half a day," said Jeff Michael, the Old Daley Inn head chef.
It's an effort to avoid -- frozen pipes.
"These are cast iron pipes," said Patrick Stella, with National Grid. "They are the oldest part of our system; they are 60 to 80 years old. A lot of them do perform well, but some of them do have leaks."
"What this does is takes the impact of any restoration costs and customer complaints," said Peter Rossi, the gas construction senior supervisor.
The state of the art machine tunnels through the earth eliminating the need for crews to dig up massive trenches, thus saving time and money.
"Some areas we can't drill because there are rocks in the ground, and we can't get the drill through, so we will dig those areas up," said Stella.
Wednesday's project is part of a multi-year one where National Grid will replace 5.5 miles of gas lines in Troy -- avoiding the problems of last winter.
"We won't have these issues with gas intrusions, water intrusions into the pipe anymore," said Stella.
Work should be wrapped up in 2019.