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Gas main rupture was not UH's fault

by Portia-Elaine Gant
Senior Staff Writer

Students, faculty and staff were made aware that progress comes at a price Wednesday morning when they were directed away from Cullen Boulevard because of a gas leak that lasted more than three hours.

Associate Vice President for Plant Operations David Irvin said the leak was the fault of one of the subcontractors working on the new science building at Cullen and Entrance 14.

Manuel Rearte/The Daily Cougar

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Houston Fire Deaprtment personnel await the capping of a broken city gas main at Cullen Boulevard and Entrance 14 on Wednesday morning.

"While they were doing some of the site work, they inadvertently hit a city gas pipe, and it's one that services the campus," Irvin said. "The good news was, we very quickly got the gas company there. Also, because the campus is served by several different gas lines, we were able to use those to make sure other areas didn't lose gas service."

Most students' concern was safety, something Irvin said he addressed immediately. A wind also helped disperse the leaking gas.

"We called out the campus environmental safety people, who were there almost immediately, so we were able to get it isolated and get the gas shut off," Irvin said. "It was never a danger to anyone. We did divert traffic off of Cullen for a little while as an extra safety precaution. We made doubly sure that there was no potential safety issues that might impact people."

By 12:40 p.m., the line was capped, Irvin said, with the expectation that repairs would be complete by 4 p.m. at the expense of the contractor.

"It won't cost the campus anything," Irvin said.
 

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