Gas leak causes major headache for Highway 3A commuters
By The Nelson Daily Sports
Highway 3A was closed for nearly seven hours as a natural gas pipeline was punctured at 13 Mile on the North Shore Monday.
A power line contractor working on the North Shore for Nelson Hydro made contact with and punctured a six-inch natural gas pipeline while digging a pole hole at approximately 4:10 p.m. Monday afternoon near Long Beach.
There were no injuries but some North Shore residents — commuters heading home to the Balfour, Harrop, Kaslo and Ainsworth areas — had to spend the night elsewhere as their commute home on the only road that services the North Shore was blocked.
After the leak was reported by the contractor a Terasen repair crew was dispatched from Trail, arriving at the scene about 5:50 p.m.
“The line was struck by a third party,” Amy Diaz of Terasen told The Nelson Daily Tuesday morning. “We opened the highway around midnight. Crews will be back today to complete fixing the problem.”
Diaz said a total of 16 workers, six from Terasen, were on scene to cap the leak.
The gas leak closed Highway 3A until 11:40 p.m. Monday night when the Terasen crew had shut off the gas, allowing single lane traffic to resume with both lanes opening some time later.
Temporary repair to the punctured line was made by Terasen overnight. However, single lane highway restrictions were required by Terasen throughout Tuesday.
WorkSafe BC has been notified and a full investigation of the incident is underway. Nelson Hydro upgrading at this site will not resume until the incident investigation has been completed.
Update
At about 2:15 pm on Tuesday Terasen Gas finished repairing the main line and started the process of relighting customer appliances.
You can check the Terasen website at the link below for the most current information on gas service restoration.
http://www.terasengas.com/Homes/default.htm
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