Workers hit Carson gas main

Construction workers using a backhoe today punctured an underground natural gas main feeding a Carson business area.

[fred]

Great! Now they can just fill up buckets and sell it for $3 a gallon outside of the ARCO station though.

[Andrew Simon]

"It's gushing pretty good."

Wait, did you say natural gas, or a petroleum line? Natural gas doesn't really "gush". But an 8" line is about right for petroleum; natural gas lines in streets are usually 3-4".

One reason I'm wondering is fire safety. A petroleum fire on that lot is bad enough, but if an 8" gas line goes up, you'll lose the whole block.

[music]

What's wrong with those engineers, I always thought they had MAPS of the lay-out of underground lines , The trick is to not disturb them or ya could have a major catastrophe , like big time. Any type of ignition could have ! I don't want to think about it.

[The Enforcer]

How can these construction guys not know where the pipelines are before they start digging? Aren't maps available from the owners of the various pipelines? Maybe a few hefty fines will inspire the responsible parties to be more diligent.

[hmmmmm]

it's called "DIG ALERT" people. 1-800-227-2600.

[stop working so fast]

I live right near the incident. And they are working at such a quick paste. Accidents happen but slow dow. Your lives are more importatnt.

[Andrew Simon]

The Enforcer wrote:

How can these construction guys not know where the pipelines are before they start digging? Aren't maps available from the owners of the various pipelines?

Utility maps come from the City, the County Public Works department and the various utility companies. But you might be suprised at how outdated some of them are. Yes, Dig Alert is supposed to have up-to-date maps, but even they miss one once in a while.

The Enforcer wrote:

Maybe a few hefty fines will inspire the responsible parties to be more diligent.

That's sure to happen. But if the available maps from the pipeline company didn't show a line there, or (more likely) showed it but in a different location, then it'll simply be their own mess to clean up and receive a contractor's backcharge for the work stoppage.

[Wondering]

Anyone know what construction company was doing the digging?