Monday’s Closure of Park Avenue Due to Emergency Gas Line Repairs

We have new details about the construction work that closed a section of Park Ave. in state College, Monday afternoon. A spokesperson from Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania confirms there was a gas leak beneath the roadway.

Workers discovered what’s called a Grade One leak in a 4-inch bare steel gas main. “We shut down the road, pinpointed the leak, and made repairs. There were never any gas readings in any buildings, and we reopened the road before evening,” says Russell Bedell, the communications manager for Columbia gas.

You may recall, there was a gas leak on Park Avenue that forced one family to evacuate a home, at the end of March. According to Bedell, that leak also occurred in a bare steel line — but in a different location.

Bedell says the company plans to invest, “more than $140 million in 2013 in replacing and upgrading infrastructure across our Pennsylvania service territory. Investing and modernizing our infrastructure reflects our ongoing commitment to ensure that we continue to deliver safe, reliable and efficient natural gas service to our customers.”

Columbia Gas was recently in the news for its plans to run a high-pressure gas line through a State College neighborhood. That pipeline is needed to convert Penn State’s power plant from coal to natural gas.

Opponents launched a grass roots campaign to re-route the gas line. And State College Borough Council eventually passed a resolution which denied a permit needed to begin construction.

Penn State has since asked Columbia Gas to consider alternative routes.