Boston PIC Approves National Grid, Externet Projects Across Five Neighborhoods

Uncategorized · Meeting of July 19, 2026

Boston's Public Improvement Commission approved 12 infrastructure petitions at its July 19 meeting, clearing the way for National Grid to replace two aging gas regulator stations in Brighton and for Externet Systems to install fiber conduit across Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, and Roslindale. National Grid representative Samuel Waifo presented four Brighton petitions covering repairs and new vault installations at Beacon Street and Reservoir Road — where an existing 1982 station serves about 700 customers — and at Waverly and Mackin Streets, where a 1970 station serves approximately 1,220 customers. Externet representative Kenan Brin presented eight fiber runs ranging from 301 to nearly 3,000 linear feet, each including a city shadow duct; the shortest, on recently reconstructed New England Avenue in Dorchester, prompted the meeting's sharpest exchange, with the commission chair pressing Externet field representative Arthur Pino on the disruption of a newly paved street.

"This would have been the only location where we could have picked up what we needed as our fiber run," Pino said, committing to concrete-encased conduit and a 25-foot extended mill-and-overlay to blend the patch seamlessly. Two Verizon conduit petitions and a pedestrian easement request for a proposed six-story mixed-use building at 16 Taber Street in the South End were advanced to a July 14 public hearing.

In the full story:

• Opening Business
• Externet field representative Arthur Pino addressed the commission directly
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 3,572 words

Source: the Uncategorized meeting of July 19, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.