Gas Company Approved For Pipe Upgrades
New Jersey Natural Gas will spend $130 million to replace old pipes
New Jersey Natural Gas on Tuesday received the blessing of the state to begin upgrading half of its aging infrastructure, the company said in a release. NJNG, based in Wall, was approved by the state Board of Public Utilities to begin a four-year project that will upgrade 276 miles – about 50 percent — of aging gas pipes, some of which are up to 50 years old, the release says. The $130 million project – called the Safety Acceleration and Facility Enhancement (SAFE) program — seeks to replace the old cast iron and unprotected steel mains in NJNG’s system. The company estimates that about 95 percent of the leaks in its 7,000-mile system can be attributed to the aging pipes, which were the most commonly used in the industry prior to 1970, the…
