Gas line upgrades underway around city


Natural gas provider CenterPoint Energy is updating gas mains around Pipestone with plastic piping that’s designed to last more than one lifetime.
“The way this stuff is being built, they’re 200-year service,” said Adam Oxborough, CenterPoint construction inspector.
The plastic piping replaces steel that was installed in the 50s and 60s.
“It’s all old steel that’s delaminating, coming apart, just kind of becoming unsafe at this point,” Oxborough said. “So we’re replacing with new main in places where it’s getting bad and in places where it makes sense to do it at the moment.”
Where it makes sense to do it this year are in areas where either the city of Pipestone or Pipestone County are doing roadwork in town, he said.
“So we kind of get in at the same time they do and everyone makes the mess together,” he said. “If it is an area that they’re not doing work [the city or county], even some areas where they are doing work but it’s not overlapping, we restore everything back to original. We do the sidewalks, do the street. If we were in people’s yards doing services, we resod. Whatever needs to happen to bring it back to where it was.”
Almost a dozen holes were opened last week around town as the new mains were installed. Holes are either backfilled at night or protected by cones, barrels and flashing lights.
The crews have been working since early April, but were delayed due to the snow storms. Oxborough said they could be finished with the main line work by the end of this week.
“The service lines for each individual house might be another week or two after that because they follow behind us,” he said.
Residents and businesses are being notified by a knock on the door that the gas would be off between one and two hours while the service line connection is made. At the most, around 300 residents would be impacted, Oxborough said.
The work is routine, he said, and “safe; these days, it’s down to a science.” But he said if anyone did smell gas to call 911.