By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Travel along Sabattus Street and Campus Avenue will get dicey today as crews from Northern Utilities begin replacing a natural gas main.

Most traffic between East Avenue and Sabattus Street will be detoured.

“It’s just wise for people to stay away from that area or find another way around it,” said Perry Robichaud, construction supervisor for Northern Utilities.

Crews will move to the westbound lane of Sabattus Street on Friday and to other streets in the area next week, Robichaud said.

Sunday’s work will keep the intersection of Campus Avenue and Sabattus Street open, but traffic will be delayed.

Crews will continue work along Sabattus Street on Monday, replacing cast iron pipes for the next two weeks.

“We’ve done a lot of streets this year, but Sabattus is a major road,” Robichaud said. “A lot of people use it, which means this work is going to get a lot of interest. We just want people to be aware.”

He estimated that Northern Utilities crews have replaced pipes under about 15 miles of Lewiston streets this year.

“I’m going to have five crews working through Sept. 16, so we still have a lot more we can get done,” he said. He should have two teams working on projects through the end of October, he said.