GAS LINE PUNCTURED ON ROUTE 9W IN STONY POINT

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By: Keith S. Shikowitz

The extraordinarily quiet afternoon, (due to the Coronavirus situation) on Route 9W near Route 210 was mildly disrupted today when workers from, a subcontractor to the Chazen Company, Concrete Cutting Specialists were drilling on Route 9W and accidentally hit a gas line causing a gas leak, by Pasta Cucina and the Chase Bank.

“No one was injured,” said Kurt Mulligan, Assistant Chief at Stony Point Fire Department. “If this had been a normal Friday, traffic would have been backed up for miles.”

Michael Moore, in charge of the operation explained how this happened. “We were core drilling the pavement to locate the utilities to at a later date soft dig it. We had to core through the pavement to soft dig. That’s all we were doing. We were trying to locate this gas main.”

They found it about 14 inches down. According to Moore, it should have been 24 inches down. They were digging this for a future project, a hydroelectric project coming out of Canada.

His main concern was the depth of the gas main. “It should have been a lot deeper. We never should have hit it. We just got through the pavement. We never should have touched it.”

Tom Martin was doing the drilling at the site. “He’s figuring out where to drill (pointing to Moore) and then I drill the hole. We’re drilling in the street and they’re bringing power in.”

He was drilling and all of the sudden he heard gas coming out of the ground. “I was not expecting that. It should have been a lot deeper. Moore added, “Legally if it is a main, it is supposed to be 24 inches below the pavement. From where we hit the pipe, we were expecting another 10 inches before getting to it.

Martin said, “Usually, it’s not in the asphalt or in the concrete.” We drill through the asphalt and then there’s concrete because sometimes they put concrete in he street

Moore, it should be no where in the sub base of the roadway. The pavement in this corridor of 9W is inconsistent. Some places we’ve been finding pavement cores 10 inches. Generally it should be 8 inches max. We have found concrete cores that are 2 – 2.5 feet.

Could the contour of the road cause this issue? The road profile is what they go off of for depth. As the road goes up, it still has to maintain the 24 inches. It should follow the contour of the road. No matter where you are the pipe should be 24 inches down.

According to Moore, there is no danger to the neighborhood. The only thing is that there may be no gas service until it is fixed.

  9w, Chazen Company, Concrete Cutting Specialists, coronavirus, gas line