Community Chat

[betteb]

Caravaggio- Just so we are clear, I am not defending either the contractor or the gas company. I'm just drawing on my 13yrs of experience in the industry to try and figure out what happened, based on the info available. Because of my job, I am the first line of defense in protecting the lines and thus protecting life and property, thus my interest in the case. I'm not in NJ and I don't work for that gas company.

Gardenman-The fact that they were directional drilling is new info to me. There is no way to be absolutely certain about the depth of an existing line without digging it up. Records ca not be relied upon because you can not know how much was graded away or how much fill might have went on after installation. The depth readings on locate equipment is little more than a "best guess" because in reading the signal, if the equipment is not directly on top of the line, the signal goes down and over, adding depth that is not there.

While I don't know NJ law, i'm betting it's similar to where i am. Any time a contractor is drilling near, or crossing an existing utility, they must visualize the line. So it sounds like they either did not do that, or they failed to properly control the drill for depth and direction.

[gardenman]

betteb. Yeah. There was clearly an issue with hitting the line, but even then had the gas company immediately evacuated the houses and ventilated them, the explosion would have never happened. Spending an hour trying to fix the leak while gas was following the lines into the houses was ultimately the big mistake. Get the people out, ventilate the homes, then fixing the leak, would have prevented what ultimately became a disaster.