A gas leak on Avent Ferry Road caused the Avent Ferry Wolfline Bus to change its route Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“A contractor out working somewhere along Avent Ferry [Road] struck and damaged a pipeline system,” Angie Townsend, spokes woman for PSNC Energy, said.
According to Townsend, the company didn’t receive any immediate calls about the situation because the contractor did not follow the proper procedure before working in the vicinity.
Townsend said the company received a call at 11:05 a.m. informing it that a third party had hit one of its pipeline systems.
“A contractor, not our contractor, was out there pulling up trees,” she said.
Townsend said the contractor accidentally pulled a piece of pipe away from the system there but no one lost service and the people who owned the house where the service line was located were not customers of PSNC. They also did not have gas service.
She said the company isolated the area and fixed the damages by 2:30 p.m.
Townsend said people doing any work near utilities should call the North Carolina One-Call Center to make sure their facilities have been marked, as well as to get information about the area. She said the service is free.
“Even if you’re planting a tree in the yard, you should call the center,” Townsend said.
Officer Jim Sughrue from Raleigh Police said they did not have information about the gas leak.
“We were basically out there directing traffic,” he said.
The Avent Ferry Wolfline bus was delayed due to the leak, according to Starr Wimberly, transit manager of the Wolfline buses.
“I got a call right at [noon] that one of the buses was stuck in traffic because of [the gas leak],” she said.
According to Wimberly, the bus took a detour through the Fraternity Court area until it could get around the area that was contained and get back on Avent Ferry Road.
“When the [bus] called in that it was held up, that’s when we detoured the rest of them,” she said.
According to Wimberly, transportation services has designated roads that are available to detour buses on.
“As of 1:45 [p.m.], all of the Avent Ferry buses were back on the scheduled route,” she said.
Townsend said situations like this have occurred before and therefore, the company knows how to deal with them.
“Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence,” she said.
