PSE&G Not Such A Good Neighbor

Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) has continued its replacement of natural gas lines in Harrison. On March 23, 2022,  PSE&G was on the 400 block of William Street.  The PSE&G website that is supposed to alert residents of where natural gas line replacement construction is to occur is not operational.  If you select Harrison as the Town where you want to find out if there is any construction occurring you get a message stating “Whoops! You’re off the Grid” and provides no information.  Harrison is not the only town that results in the “Whoops! You’re off the Grid “ message.  Several different towns were tried resulting in the same message.  If you want to test it out, please visit their website 

Why PSE&G has decided to do construction on the 400 Block of Williams Street before the school year is over rather than wait until June is a question that PSE&G management should answer.  The 400 Block of William Street is where the Lincoln Grammar School is located.  Children and their parents traverse William Street dropping and picking up children both by car and on foot.  The noise from jackhammers and bulldozers leads to the disruption of teachers and students in their classrooms. The dirt that is being dug up for the new lines and dirt that is being brought in creates dust and soils the street.  PSE&G does not have a street cleaner machine to pick up the dirt and soil left behind on the street.

The street is closed to resident during the day with exception of being opened up to vehicular traffic to  allow parents to pick up their children by car at the end of the school day. It makes you wonder why can't residents access the street?  What looked like a full crew stayed until after midnight working on the street.  It was not clear why.  On Thursday, March 24, 2022, two PSE&G vans were parked on the street with the street open but No Parking signs still up and no work was done.  Two PSE&G employees stayed in their van the entire day on their phones.  Approximately 10 to 12 feet of plastic piping was installed despite the overtime hours.

PSE&G’s construction crew does not have a stellar record with the community.  In the past, PSE&G has left steel plates that are not being used but stored on the street rather than being returned to the PSE&G construction department shop.  Overnight Parking in Harrison is very difficult and residents use every spot available including risking parking on corners late at night when there are no other parking spaces available. Storing steel plates even on corners spots should not be allowed.  In addition, PSE&G has left both soil and blacktop in mounds on streets which is both taking up much-needed parking spaces and an environmental hazard to the town’s sewer system and the Passaic River.

On Williams Street the soil in the rain is taking up 2 parking spots for no apparent reason.  The two employees in the vans could have shoveled the soil into a dump truck and carted it away.

If you have a concern, you can email the PSE&G Customer Service department at [email protected].  We hope that PSE&G management has learned from its mistakes and corrects the above and is a good neighbor going forward with its natural gas line replacement project in town.  In addition, we hope the communication on when streets will be closed and when cars must be moved is improved.  In the past PSE&G has posted No Parking signs and then does not show up for planned construction work.  Then there are the times that PSE&G personnel put up No Parking signs without 24-hour notice and individual cars are towed despite valiant efforts by the Harrison Police to call car owners using parking permit information.  Nobody needs to have their car towed due to PSE&G’s poor planning.

Leave us a comment in the Discussion Board if you get any information.