What's Up With The Traffic Backups Lately on Billerica Road?
Welcome to our latest Patch Answers.
Anyone driving through the town center knows that traffic can be particularly difficult, especially during peak hours, but recently that traffic has spilled off onto Billerica Road with a police detail limiting portions of the road to only one lane.
One Chelmsford Patch reader e-mailed us asking what was going on, and we found out what folks living in the area found out in the mail.
National Grid is installing gas pipes along Billerica Road near town hall and on streets just south of town hall (Summer Street, Perham Street, Plum Street, Hildreth Street) as well as on Wilson Street and further down on Billerica Road near the center.
Construction will likely continue until approximately Oct. 13 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays.
Bruce
7:53 am on Friday, August 24, 2012
"...and we found out what folks living in the area found out in the mail."
Really? I'm one of those folks and the only way I found out was when I found a couple of National Grid workers digging at the side of my house one morning.
Sure, I noticed the construction (and road markings) and figured they were replacing the lines. But I received no notice that they needed to replace the line (and meter) in my property. Neither did my neighbor.
That said, the workers were easy to work with and did a nice job. But National Grid as a company needs a lesson in communicating with their customers.
Andrew Sylvia
8:18 am on Friday, August 24, 2012
Sounds like another investigation in that case, folks at Town Hall said National Grid sent out a letter to everyone in the neighborhood. If they didn't, it'd be interesting to hear why.
Bruce
3:58 pm on Monday, August 27, 2012
I never followed up with NG as to why we didn't receive notification. I figured it would be a fruitless endeavor, and it was just NG being NG. The crew was acting under the assumption that we were notified, but didn't seem too surprised to hear we weren't.
The other puzzling event was how on another morning I found a Chelmsford water district employee digging a hole in the middle of my front yard. While it was obvious to me he was locating the water shutoff to mark it, it would have been nice to have had some notification from them as well. I'm not sure what the laws say regarding this, but It seems to me that just going into the middle of someone's yard and digging (without consent) could be inviting legal trouble.
Overall, all parties involved seemed most interested in getting the job done - while not showing much interest in communicating with their customers.
Frustrated Resident
9:16 am on Saturday, August 25, 2012
We never received a letter either. But all those stops along Billerica Rd. are a forewarning of things to come with the building of the new fire station. Every new crosswalk and set of lights is going to cause the same problems.