For the past eight days, Con Edison employees have been guarding a small taped-off area in front of 215 West 90th Street. They do this 24 hours a day. This led one of our readers to ask a very good question: why?
Well, it turns out that the company found “an extremely low level of contact voltage (1.8 volts) on a service box cover on January 17,” according to a spokesman for the company. When Con Ed finds “contact voltage” their policy is to keep the spot monitored “until the cause is found and abated.”
That means that even when you’re snoozing in bed at 3 a.m., someone is out there watching the dangerous spot.
On Wednesday, Con Ed tested the site and found there were no volts coming out. They’ll next clean the service box and be on their way.
Isn’t this the problem that caused a lot of dogs to be killed a few years back?
Yes, though the report makes it sound as if the suspect contact voltage may not be as high as it was in those cases.
I need this gig. I’m good at staring at stupid sxhit all day for pay.
What exactly are they watching for?
Trump voters.
They’re making sure nobody steps on the grate in case the voltage spikes and becomes a hazard.
The same time when dogs were getting shocked by manhole covers a few years back, a woman slipped and fell on one. She was literally branded by the hot cover.
So if someone steps on it and flies through the air, they’ll get out of the car?
If somebody flew through the air wouldn’t you get out of your car? I know I would.
Volts. They’re watching for volts. As the new President says, there’s a lot of illegal volting going on. ConEd is on the job.
Dear UWS Scaffold–thank you. I really, really needed that.
they are justifying their jobs for the big rate increase coming up in febuary/march
This could be part of a settlement reached by the father of a young lady who was electrocuted after stepping on a grate or plate protecting some Con Ed work while walking her dog. This occurred some years ago.
It is far cheaper for ConEd to station employees to “guard” or whatever a location with suspected voltage problems than simply put up a sign.
As we all know many New Yorkers (and or allow their pets/children) to walk where ever they want regardless of how many signs warning them off. When the inevitable happens ConEd is on the hook for a large legal payout and incurs bad PR along with the wrath of local politicians.
This is probably more true today when everyone and their grandmother walks around with their heads down/totally immersed in their phones/tablets or whatever often oblivious to their surroundings.
So when 95th between Columbus and Amsterdam was being paved by DOT a couple months ago, Con Ed was in the middle of a big project near the west end of the block and DOT paved around them. For weeks now Con Ed has been out of that spot but nobody ever paved that part of the street, which is still in the “milled” condition between when DOT rips up the pavement and when they come back to pave it.
Shouldn’t be too worried If I were you; sooner or later entire street will be ripped open again in whole or part, and thus will need to be fully repaved.
It never ceases to amaze how the City goes through the entire production of repaving a street or avenue only to have it or parts opened up again, this often barely a few months later.
Problem is at least in Manhattan all the infrastructure by law is buried under the streets. I’ve seen Con Ed or Verizon dig up parts of a street that was only repaved a few weeks before.