If a high-pressure natural gas line is ever constructed, it would probably be installed along the Route 31 corridor and not straight through Pennington or under Dublin Road.
By John Tredrea
In the event that a high-pressure natural gas line is ever constructed, it would probably be installed along the Route 31 corridor and not straight through Pennington or under Dublin Road, an Elizabethtown Gas Co. official told Pennington Borough Council on Monday.
None of the gas in the now-defunct line, originally proposed for Pennington, would have been used in Pennington. The line would have been part of Elizabethtown’s regional distribution grid.
Michael Scasifaro told Borough Council that Elizabethtown also has nixed the idea of installing the high-pressure line under Dublin Road, a narrow residential artery that runs north-south in Hopewell Township, just west of Route 31. The proposed route for the gas line in Pennington was east of Route 31.
"Based on what we saw in Pennington, running the line through the borough is infeasible," Mr. Scasifaro said. "There’s not enough room. There are too many other utilities in the way. We looked on the other side of Route 31 as well, on Dublin Road, and decided that it was infeasible there as well, for the same reasons."
Mr. Scasifaro said the idea of running a high-pressure line through Pennington or along Dublin Road never advanced beyond the "very preliminary" stage. "I’d like to stress that there are no plans at this time to install this pipe at all," he said. "If we do decide to install it some time in the future, it would very probably be along the Route 31 corridor."
When it became public knowledge early this year that Elizabethtown was considering the installation of a high-pressure line through Pennington along its north-south axis, the firm said the driving force behind the idea was the desire to avoid a bridge over the CSX railroad tracks on Route 31 just north of Ingleside Avenue. Running primarily along Route 31, the line would have connected Elizabethtown facilities in Ringoes and in Hopewell Township, on Blackwell Road, that receive natural gas from the western states.
"I’m pleased that you’ve come here tonight and that you’ve decided that the borough and Dublin Road are infeasible," Pennington Councilman David Garber told Mr. Scarsifaro Monday night.
Mr. Garber vehemently opposed running the gas line through Pennington. The Borough Council voted unanimously against the idea and several hundred residents signed petitions against it.

