Unitil Moving Ahead with Plan to Expand Natural Gas Service

SEATTLE (Oil Monster):  Unitil is expected to begin work soon on a plan to extend its natural gas service into Epping.

The Hampton-based utility company has gas service to the south on Route 125 in Plaistow and to the north in Rochester, but this is the first time that it will be offered in Epping.

“We’re still very much on track to begin the primary work this year with completion in 2020,” said Alec O’Meara, Unitil’s media relations manager.

Unitil expanded natural gas service into Brentwood in 2014 with a line along Route 27.

O’Meara said the new plan would extend that line for about a mile on Route 27 in Brentwood and then continue for another three miles in Epping. The line would run west on Route 27 and then turn south on Route 125.

The expansion, which would be the first time natural gas service is offered in Epping, would serve approximately 300 residences and businesses.

The work is expected to begin as soon as final permits from the state Department of Transportation are in hand.

The project was approved by the state’s Public Utilities Commission earlier this year.

O’Meara said some preliminary advance work has already been done on some town-owned side roads along the way, including Jannell Court and Ladds Lane.

“This is a project that we’ve been looking at for a number of years. It’s been a natural extension of our system. We look at natural gas expansion as an organic process. We bring our service to one town and work on bringing it to various businesses and residences in that town and then we look at what the next logical extension of our business is,” he said.

 Courtesy: www.unionleader.com