Part One: Clean-up of New York City Midtown Explosion Frozen Zone

According to televised news reports in New York on local television stations, the clean up and recovery are the goals of the city agencies involved in getting back to normal in New York City's Midtown area now known as the Frozen Zone. Clean up of the West side of the street is to be followed by a concentration of resources cleaning up on the East and West of 42 Street, a major business and tourist area, the heart of Midtown. The Fire Department has been cleaning the streets and contractors have been cleaning the buildings. The water is being collected by contractors so that the contamination does not enter the sewer system.

Small Business Services is helping to restore businesses and their customers to their former state. The focus is on shrinking the Frozen Zone and 42 Street closures piece by piece. The areas from 42 Street going to 43 Street getting cleaned up are more complicated. Opening the street to pedestrians and vehicles hopefully by this weekend is a major goal and to at least open up the entrances to the buildings according to televised news reports in New York on local television stations.

41st Street and Lexington Avenue, where the explosion occurred and one block in each direction from there is much more complicated in regard to the clean up and needs to be evaluated. The goal to shrink the Frozen Zone until this area is the last is the direction of efforts being done.

There is no set date for completion. Safety exercised by Con Edison in this kind of a clean up and evaluation is needed. The DEP has ongoing air testing and monitoring in place. All city employees are wearing proper equipment and protective gear. The clean up operation is to remove all debris including asbestos. The goal is to shrink the Frozen Zone and to open up the street. All of the agencies involved have good cooperation with each other.

A (Small Business Association) SBA Loan Program is coming like one that was done in LIC (Long Island City) in the past, small loans for small businesses who need them. The loans made in LIC were all reported to have been paid back, and the program was reported on the local televised news by a Con Ed representative to have worked.

Bill Longhi who spoke at a mayors update on the local televised news live gave a status update on Friday the 20^th of July, 2007. He said that the event had caused a massive crater and had affected the steam and electric systems in the area. There was no effect on customers however. It took out 13 feeders though. They are working to run above ground cables to restore the electrical feeders and 10 of the 13 had already been restored.

When the explosion occurred, Con Edison shut down the flow of steam by going down several blocks at a distance and shutting down 13 valves. As a result of this, 18 customers lost power however 13 of them have had power restored including the first customer to be restored, the Chrysler Building.

Gas pipes going through the crater caused by the explosion at 41^st Street and Lexington Avenue do not have any leaks and there are also no leaks from mains. There was a cautionary shut down and reduction of gas to that area. Going forward, there are live 13 volt cables inside the crater. Con Edison wants to get in and fact gather first to analyze why the explosion occurred. They need to assess the damage and scope of work needed to reconstruct electrical and steam services after which intersection can be repaired

Part of the analysis needed is to identify all of the work and activity done in the area. Getting into the cavity will reveal information from which conclusions will be drawn. Severe rain has the ability to fill a man hole and infiltrate pipes which would get hot then turn the leaked water to steam which is then vented through the man holes. They were inspected that did not happen in this case. There is a need to know the cause of the explosion before assessing what to do or not to do in the future, according to televised news reports in New York on local television stations.