Teamwork: SURE Gas-line Project Reaches Year Four

 

"We work as a team," is the apt description given by Joe McSheffery of Unitil's SURE project, which is in progress on the north side of Munjoy Hill. McSheffery is the on-site inspector and construction coordinator overseeing the complex gas-line work going on in the area.

He has 42 years in the gas field, and sums it up saying, "This is my career." That career began with him as a laborer, and then working as a service technician, before rising to the supervisory position he now holds. McSheffery walks around and checks to see what each person is doing and tells the service technicians, who install the pipes from outside to inside, which houses to go to next. He loves his job and the people he works with.

The neighborhood is filled with hard-hatted men and heavy-duty equipment, working daily at difficult and dirty work, to replace and install new gas mains and service lines to area homes.
Matt Doughty has a background in construction, excavation, and working with hazardous materials and transport. He went to school for geology and geophysics. Doughty worked for the City of Portland before joining Unitil. He is now the project manager for Unitil, in charge of the SURE project, and stated, "There's an incredible amount of experience and coordination involved." He says, "The pipe is being installed in accordance with all safety regulations. Everybody wants it done right the first time."

Approximately 400 residential services and 800 meters are involved in this phase of the job, which is also the fourth year Unitil has been working on the complex, labor-intensive capital improvement project. The total job is expected to continue for another 10 years before final completion. At that time the upgraded natural gas pipeline will have covered all of Portland andWestbrook. The gas system will be totally modernized and will be able to meet the increasing demand for natural gas in Maine.

 

There will be 19,853 feet of new pipe installed in the Munjoy Hill area. Old low-pressure cast-iron and outdated plastic pipes will be replaced with high-density polyethylene pipe (HDPE). Unitil says the replacement of some of the older portions of the distribution system is being done before they have the potential to become a serious safety concern.
Doughty says, "It is very robust and is capable of handling more capacity and higher pressure." Regarding the replacement pipe, he stated, "This upgrade is very necessary from a systems standpoint."

The collaboration and teamwork of those on the project has been responsible for having the work place as little strain on the neighborhood as possible: from the distribution of flyers notifying residents of what to expect to the flaggers directing traffic.

 

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