Crews finally relocate natural gas line on Cañon City street on fourth attempt; project ends soon
Scott Harrison
CAÑON CITY, Colo. (KRDO) — Drivers, businesses, and neighbors along the east end of Main Street will get a pleasant holiday present; the completion of a natural gas line relocation that closed several blocks of the street for months at a time.
The project, which started early last year, has affected several blocks at the east end of Main Street between Raynolds Avenue and the highway.
Currently closed is the area between Rhodes Avenue and the highway, as well as a block of Rhodes north of Main.
Miller Pipeline has tried unsuccessfully on three attempts to move the gas line — owned by Atmos Energy — under the Union Pacific Railroad Tracks.
On one try, the metal pipe broke underground, and on another attempt, the pipe damaged a city water main.
“We’ve not been able to get the water main to work quite right until the error,” Leo Evans, the city’s public works director, explained. “So, Miller Pipeline, when they’re done with the gas main work, is going to be working on some repairs to that water main to try to get that back in service and working the way it should be.”
Crews paused work in June because they wanted to wait until an irrigation canal through the area — that occasionally caused flooding — was shut off for the year.
Evans said that crews returned earlier this month and finally moved the gas line to a new location.
“Previously, they had been trying to go underneath, and go deep, and go below where our future work was going to take place,” he said. “And this time, they decided to go over the top of it. So, their gas main is buried shallower over the top rather than trying to go underneath. It just made the work a lot easier this time.”
Evans said that all work in the area should be finished by Christmas.
The project has also delayed a $6 million city stormwater project that is halfway finished; Evans said that the city will wait a year before finishing that work to give drivers, neighbors, and businesses a break from street closures.