The company doing the roadwork on Columbia Avenue in Castlegar says they don’t want a repeat of last week’s gas line break that closed the busy road for several hours.
Last Thursday an asphalt grinder operated by MarWest Industries struck a natural gas line between 13th and 15th Avenues, severing the line and prompting an emergency closure of the area.
No one was injured in the incident, which MarWest says happened because the gas line wasn’t located where it was supposed to be.
The company says it did call before it dug in that location.
“The Gas Service Line, which was verified by BC One Call was identified as being one-half metre below grade, however its actual location was just below the asphalt,” MarWest said in a news release.
An spokesperson for FortisBC says they can confirm the gas line was not located as deeply as it should have been.
Nicole Bogdanovic says while the company feels most gas line hits are preventable, this one “would have truly been hard to prevent.”
“What can happen, is the land can shift, and roadwork over the years can affect the pipe’s depth,” she told Castlegar News. “In this case, the pipe was over 50 years old, and and there’s been significant road construction in the area since.”
Bogdanovic added that MarWest Industries has an excellent safety record and reputation with FortisBC, and follow best practices when dealing with FortisBC infrastructure.
A spokesperson for MarWest says after last week’s incident, they are double-checking any area that indicates there may be a gas line, using their ground-probing sensors.
“If our plans show there’s a line, we are re-doing the entire section to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” says Stephanie Pelletier.
The accident closed Columbia Avenue, the main street in Castlegar, for about four hours while FortisBC crews closed the line and repaired the leak. The closure affected service to about 53 gas customers. While emergency vehicles were re-routed locally, most traffic had to take the Highway 3 bypass to reach the city’s north end.
The road was opened for one-lane traffic by 6 p.m., and two-way traffic enabled by 10 p.m.
“MarWest and the City of Castlegar realize this situation is of great inconvenience and apologizes for any impact,” the news release stated.