Natural gas line cut, area of downtown Bend shut

(Update: Repair didn’t work, crews will finish fix Monday of ‘very small’ leak)

A six-inch natural gas line was cut into by a road crew in a downtown Bend intersection Friday night, prompting closure of several intersections and clearing of pedestrians and traffic out of the immediate area for a few hours, an official said.

The gas line being cut by a concrete saw blade and a smell of gas was reported around 9:15 p.m. in an area where the city of Bend has been preparing several streets for a nighttime paving project next week.

Bend Fire Department and Cascade Natural Gas crews were on scene, while fire officials sent out a tweet urging people to “stay well clear of the area.”

Bend Fire Battalion Chief Dave Howe told NewsChannel 21 a roughly 60-year-old six-inch line was hit by a saw during the paving project, in the middle of the intersection of Northwest Harriman Street and Oregon Avenue.

Fortunately, that meant it happened away from buildings, Howe said.

“Natural gas is a bit lighter than air, so it tends to migrate up into the atmosphere,” he said.

A one-block exclusion area was quickly established in all directions as Cascade Natural Gas crews monitored for concentration, finding none by shortly before 11 p.m.

The plan, Howe said, was to excavate the line in the intersection and put a permanent “sleeve” on it – a process expected to take several hours.

The contractor crew did call the special utility number to have the line location marked on the street, “but the painted line was worn and hard to see,” Howe said. “It was getting dark and it was dusty when he was cutting” — and the line was shallower than thought.

By around 11:30 p.m., Howe said fire crews had foamed the area and were staffing charged hose lines as CNG crews wearing suits with air supplies had dug down to the line break, which was “pretty shallow.” Crews were placing the sleeve on the pipe before midnight.

But a short time later, Howe reported the sleeve only slowed but didn’t stop the leak completely. He said CNG crews were “cold-sealing” the line as a temporary fix and covering the hole until they return and complete repairs Monday. He said there is “no hazard,” as it turned out to be “a very small leak.”

Fortunately, Battalion Chief Andy Hood said, it was a fairly low-pressure line, compared to ones on the city’s Eastside, or it could have been a much more serious issue. He said the crews had removed 2-3 inches of asphalt in prep and the line was only about four inches below that.