Residents in Upper Fells Point say BGE’s gas line replacement project is wreaking havoc on their East Baltimore neighborhood.

Between the constant street closures, rough road fillings, clouds of dust, heavy equipment parked on streets and loss of parking spaces, the slow pace of the rehabilitation project is angering many residents.

“This was once a nice road. Now it looks like a country back road,” Chrissy Anderson, president of the Fells Prospect Community Association, said while giving a tour of the construction zone on Gough Street.

“Here is part of their work,” she said, pointing to potholes, cold patch, gravel and a mound of gray sludge surrounding a storm drain.

Dubbed Project Pipeline, BGE and its contractor, NPL, are replacing three miles of cast-iron gas mains, more than 800 service pipes and 900 gas meters in Fells Prospect and Butchers Hill.

Work, which began about a year ago, is being done on the streets and in homes within an area bound by Eastern Avenue on the south and Baltimore Street to the north, and from Castle and Chester streets east to Patterson Park Avenue.

Asked about project’s impact on her life, a Butchers Hill resident coming out of her apartment summed it up this way: “It’s been a weird winter with no road.”

“Going on Forever”

Anderson says residents expected the inconveniences that come with invasive infrastructure repairs in older communities. BGE met with the community last May, and residents knew the work needed to be done.

What they didn’t anticipate was feeling under siege for months on end or that the project – scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014 – would be six months (at least) behind schedule.

“It feels like it’s been going on forever,” Anderson said.

The final straw for the neighborhood, she said, happened last Friday evening when BGE parked nine backhoes on Patterson Park Avenue, taking away two dozen parking spaces.

The association complained to the utility.

“Taking away 20+ parking spaces makes a real difference here,” says Anderson about a community that has little off-street parking. “There is simply no place else for people to go.”

Aaron Koos, BGE spokesman, defended the practice. He says the equipment is being parked in the neighborhood to maximize the daily 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. window that crews are allowed to work on the project.

“Loading and offloading equipment does take time away from the work period,” he said.

As for their complaint about the backhoes, resident Laura Irwin said BGE simply scattered the backhoes throughout the neighborhood.

Spokesman Koos told The Brew that the utility had explored establishing off-site staging areas for the heavy equipment.

“We are looking at this option again now,” he added.

Ticketed for Parking in Work Zones

A number of neighbors say they have had their cars towed and sometimes impounded since Project Pipeline started.

Parking is prohibited between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on a half dozen or more blocks where work is being done. Fells Prospect residents had expected as much, Anderson said, but she and neighbor Will Granger say it’s not uncommon to see whole blocks where “No Parking” signs are conspicuously posted but no construction is taking place.

Koos said BGE follows a strict procedure when it comes to parking restrictions, taking direction from the city.

Where parking will be restricted, signs are posted at least 48 hours in advance, and every effort is made when possible to tow cars within the neighborhood and not to the impound lot.

Parking in work areas, he said, is one of the reasons why the project’s completion has been delayed.

Road Closures

Another serious problem with the pipeline project, residents say, is road closures that make it hard for them to get their houses.

According to Anderson, BGE told neighbors that it wouldn’t block off consecutive streets, but it has sometimes done so, leaving residents driving around circles trying to find their way home.

Chester Street resident Mark Adams said BGE has no understanding of the flow of traffic in his neighborhood.

“For example, this fall they were working at the bottom of Chester Street and had it blocked off at Bank. They had Bank Street blocked off at Collington Avenue. People coming down Chester during rush hour got detoured onto Bank, only to be detoured a second time up Collington,” he said.

The result was a procession of cars circling through the neighborhood trying to get home, he said.

Looks Like Coal Country

By far, the biggest complaint of residents is the state of messiness that crews leave the streets when they depart at 3 p.m.

Bruce Ward says filth from the diggings are left on the streets and sidewalks. “BGE workers don’t sweep up. There’s gravel dust everywhere.”

Koos maintains that BGE does have a street sweeper on site that is being used daily – or as frequently as possible – to keep the job sites swept, and crews also manually sweep sidewalks and work areas.

Adams isn’t buying it.

Last Thursday, he said, he used a push broom and cleared about 15 pounds of gravel from his block. “The streets look like something out of West Virginia coal country,” he said.

“How much does it cost to have two workers run down a block with push brooms and shovels?”