Puget Sound Energy’s work to install a new natural gas pipeline beneath 110th Avenue Northeast pushes further south this week, with more lane closures and traffic disruption anticipated.

Crews are expected to clear the busy intersection of 110th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Eighth Street today and begin the next section of work, between Northeast Eighth and Northeast Sixth streets.

The northbound lanes in that section of 110th Avenue Northeast will be closed around the clock for approximately three weeks. Southbound lanes will remain open and access to businesses, including Bellevue City Hall, will be maintained.

Other sections of 110th Avenue will be closed in the northbound direction as PSE’s contractor for the work, Alaska Continental Pipeline, trenches its way south in the coming weeks.

A second crew working on the same pipeline project is trenching on 112th Avenue Southeast, between Main Street and Southeast Sixth Street. Lane closures will be required on 112th and delays are expected.

Both construction sites are part of PSE’s Bellevue Braids-Lake Hills Connector natural gas pipeline project. The utility is adding the 3.5 miles of new pipeline to accommodate projected growth downtown and to provide a backup for an existing line.

For additional information, including a detailed map, visit PSE’s website at http://www.pse.com/community/yourneighborhood/pages/CurrentProjects.aspx?tab=2&chapter=2.

For the latest regarding traffic impacts, visit the city of Bellevue’s Traffic Advisory web page at http://www.bellevuewa.gov/traffic_advisories.htm.

All downtown work is scheduled for completion by Nov. 15. Installation work on the rest of the pipeline will wrap up by the end of 2008; repaving work will be finished in spring 2009.