As construction reshapes the North Shore, Con Edison is completing what they say is the final phase of electrical work that began in April along Richmond Terrace and Bay Street. Spokesman, Michael Clendenin, said the worst is over in terms of traffic disruptions.
"You will see con ed trucks around but you won’t see as much disruption and hopefully not as much traffic as we have had before," Clendenin said.
Clendenin also says to expect a few more planned outages in and around the area through October.
Some local businesses owners said the power outages are what have them on edge after unplanned outages this summer shut down the Staten Island Ferry terminal and businesses like Bay Dental at the Pointe building complex.
"What concerns us is the outages that occur that aren’t planned and just have been happening more recently and more frequently with no notice. Of it happening and losing power for hours at a time," said Dr. Paul Kaplan, a dentist at Bay Dental at the Pointe.
Meanwhile, Clendenin tells us Con Edison is working with all of the Pointe businesses and its fifty condo residences to avoid disruptions. The Pointe had a weekend long outage due to equipment failure earlier this month.
"One major things that we’re going to be doing is putting some of those customers from an underground powerline to an over head. We think it’ll help eliminate them being affected by a lot of the planned outages from the digging that’s going on,” he said.
Clendenin said previous power outages were unacceptable and the changes will be made in mid-August . He said overhead powerlines are easier to repair in the event of an outage, but some customers like Kaplan say a system overhaul is necessary.
"It sounds like they’re putting a bandage on the issue," Kaplan said.
In the meantime Con Edison said it will give plenty of advanced notice for planned outages in the area.