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October 9, 2008

UPDATED: Gas shut off to ruptured line

Transcript Staff

Repair crews isolated a ruptured section of a 12-inch, high pressure natural gas pipeline near 48th Avenue NW and Tecumseh Road and shut off the spewing gas by 11 a.m. today.

The line which supplies gas to Norman and Oklahoma City was cut by a construction crew working in the area. Traffic was diverted on 48th Avenue and Tecumseh Road.

Students were being kept inside at Roosevelt School as a precaution. Children in the portable classrooms were ushered into the main building.

A district spokesman said the school was given the all clear shortly before 11 a.m. and no students were ever in danger.

The line break is south of Tecumseh Road and just east of 48th Avenue NW. Firefighters evacuated about 20 residents at who were at home on nearby Hillview Drive and were setting up gas monitoring equipment in the Roosevelt school’s parking lot.

Jim Dembowski, a Norman resident who lives about a mile north of the break, said he could hear the rush of the escaping gas from his home. A construction crew apparently struck the line while working with a bulldozer in the area this morning.

Emergency crews closed Tecumseh Road between 36th Avenue NW and 48th Avenue NW and 48th Avenue NW between Rock Creek Road and Tecumseh Road.

ONEOK spokesman Don Sherry said crews were blowing out the remaining gas from the line. He said residents will hear the spewing but it is normal activity in the repair process. The line typically has about 600 pounds of pressure per square inch.

He said the line supplies natural gas to Norman and Oklahoma City customers. He does not anticipate any significant supply problems for the area. Sherry said the rupture is unrelated to the current gas pipeline project under way in Norman.













Transcript Staff

Firefighters and ONG crews were responding to a ruptured 12-inch gas transmission line near 48th Avenue NW and Tecumseh Road shortly before 10 a.m. today.

Traffic was diverted on 48th Avenue and Tecumseh Road. Students were being kept inside at Roosevelt School. Children in the portable classrooms were ushered into the main building.

The line break is south of Tecumseh Road and just east of 48th Avenue NW. Firefighters evacuated nearby Hillview Drive and were setting up gas monitoring equipment in the Roosevelt school’s parking lot.

Jim Dembowski, a Norman resident who lives about a mile north of the break, said he could hear the rush of the escaping gas from his home. A construction crew apparently struck the line while working with a bulldozer in the area this morning.

Emergency crews closed Tecumseh Road between 36th Avenue NW and 48th Avenue NW and 48th Avenue NW between Rock Creek Road and Tecumseh Road.

Oklahoma Natural Gas spokesman Don Sherry said crews were figuring out where to best shut off the flow of gas through the line in order to make repairs.

He said the line supplies natural gas to Norman and Oklahoma City customers. He does not anticipate any significant supply problems for the area. Sherry said the rupture is unrelated to the current gas pipeline project under way in Norman.



































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