Gas pipe broken today – investigation underway

A SCIRT piping crew working on the Barbadoes/ Moorhouse intersection, in a very busy area of the city, today ruptured a 110 mm gas pipe, 1.35 metres deep. This resulted in the evacuation of buildings, cordoned off roads and a halt to rail line services from Lyttelton through central Christchurch.

Crews alerted emergency services just after 1 pm today as soon as the pipe was broken. Public safety was the overriding concern at all times, said SCIRT general manager Duncan Gibb. The evacuations were managed by the Fire Service and Police with Contact Energy cutting off the supply and making the pipe safe.

Several businesses and educational institutions were affected by the evacuations and closures of several main roads.

SCIRT will be doing a full investigation into how the rupture occurred, said Duncan Gibb. “This is not the way SCIRT wants to operate and it is essential that we work out how this happened so it does not recur in future.”

The Christchurch Transport Operations Centre, which has cameras on the roads, was able to update media on traffic cordons as soon as they went in place. The cordons were lifted after 3 pm today.

ends

© Scoop Media