CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi Police Department officers and Nueces County Constables blocked off the road Wednesday afternoon after water crews accidentally hit underground gas line on South Port Avenue near Nimitz Street.
Corpus Christi Fire Department Capt. Lonnie Loosemore tells 3NEWS the Corpus Christi Hazardous Materials team was called in to take gas readings in the area to determine whether the incident posed a threat to residents or businesses in the area.
"We did get some readings – most of the dangerous readings are within 10 feet, 20 feet of the leak," he said. "As we get further and further away, we’re starting to reduce, and we’ve got our safe zone set up."
A water line also was damaged. Traffic in the area was detoured onto Sarita Street on Wednesday afternoon, among other streets, but was reopened Wednesday evening.
Loosemore said the next step in opening the street will be for the city to locate and shut off the valves feeding gas into those underground lines. After the valves are closed, Loosemore said there's more waiting that has to happen.
"It’s gonna depend," he said. "It could take a little bit of time to bleed down to a point where they can actually work in there. Then, after that, there’s water -- they’re going to have to pump that out -- they’re gonna have to shore the trench, and so this I probably gonna be a little longer incident than most."
Loosemore said the quickest way to get the road passable again would be to avoid the area so crews can work.
"If anyone can just stay out of the way here, that would be great," he said. "As soon as the city crews can find those valves, they’ll have it shut down and have us back to running normal shortly."
