A gas leak in the Bel-Red corridor led to some tense minutes on Thursday, May 26 for some local businesses before it was fixed without issue a few hours later.
According to Brad Harwood, information officer for the city, Comcast sub-contractor Bore-Tec, working for contractor CableCom, ruptured a Puget Sound Energy natural gas line while doing subterranean work on the road.
Akiko Oda, spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy, said the utilities company was notified at 11:28 by the Bellevue Fire Department about the leak.
Bel-Red Road was shut down between 132nd and 134th Avenues Northeast for several hours as crews worked to fix the leak. Bellevue Police and crews measured natural gas levels in several local businesses to make sure the air quality was safe.
Puget Sound Energy crews arrived onsite at 11:33 a.m. and the leak was capped at 1:27 p.m. A third-party contractor hit the 3/4-inch steel pipe. Service was not affected for utility customers.
Birch Tree Academy, a bilingual preschool located on 134th Avenue Northeast, was near the rupture. The school’s office manager, Rezeda, said it affected school briefly.
“Our kids were outside for recess when they were told to go inside,” she said. “The smell was really bad. Police came and measured the gas levels in the classroom. They found that it was zero, so we didn’t have to evacuate.”
Terry Winstead, store manager of Northwest Pianos on Bel-Red Road, said he was surprised by the activity outside but that it didn’t affect business.
“We didn’t have anybody come in and say anything about it,” he said. “I just thought it was construction work on the road until we saw five or six police cars as well. It was blocked off for about 500 feet.”
Outside curb lanes on Bel-Red Road were opened at 4 p.m., but the inside lanes remained closed “until residual gas levels were negligible,” Harwood said.
A temporary pavement repair was placed on the site, and a permanent repair will be completed at a yet-to-be-determined date.
Another gas line break happened the same day in Seattle, shutting down several streets for a few hours.
