All gas service restored after water main break

By Globe Staff

National Grid has restored natural gas service to all of the 410 customers who were cut off after a weekend water main break that snapped a gas line and sent torrents of water streaming into the company's distribution network.

The remaining customers were connected by 7:30 a.m. after almost a weeklong outage in sections of the Financial District and North End. Pockets of water remain in National Grid’s distribution system and could continue to cause “brief, isolated disruptions in the future,” the company said in a statement.

“We want to thank our customers for the patience they have shown as we worked around the clock to restore the system,” William Akley, a National Grid senior vice president, said in the statement. “This could not have been accomplished without the support of Mayor Menino, his staff and the city’s public safety officials.”

Crews will remain in the Financial District and North End through the weekend to monitor the system and repair any outages.

A customer claim center at Boston City Hall will remain open until 5 p.m. today and may open again next week if there is demand. Customers can also call National Grid at 1-800-732-3400 for more information.

National Grid released the following summary of the clean-up effort:

• Deployment of more than 450 National Grid field maintenance, engineering and support personnel from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New York

• Extracting more than 70,000 gallons of water from 13 miles of affected gas mains running under 31 streets in the North End, the Financial District and Faneuil Hall area

• Use of 24 vacuum trucks and 100 portable liquid pumps

• Serving more than 3,000 meals to workers in the field

• Working 24 hours a day for six days with no injuries to our employees or the public and a perfect safety inspection record

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