Upcoming maintenance of natural gas lines in North Manhattan will require weeks of construction and may cause significant delays on major traffic arteries in the area, according to utility officials at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
The maintenance will consist of two projects: replacing existing pipeline, and installation of a second line. The stretch of pipeline to be replaced is aging, while the additional pipeline will help create “redundancy” in the delivery system and minimize the likelihood of service outages, said Faviola Ochoa, a public affairs manager for SoCalGas.
The section of pipe to be replaced will run along Rosecrans Avenue between Ocean Drive and Alma Avenue, with spurs going north on Highland Avenue and south on Manhattan Avenue. Provided the company obtains permits from the city, construction is expected to begin in about a week, and last into November.
The projects will bring large trucks through the area, as well as construction related noise and dust. It will also involve the occasional venting of natural gas. The odor of the gas may be detectable by nearby residents, but company officials said there will be no associated health risk. (Natural gas is odorless, but utilities add chemicals that produce the familiar smell to better alert people when leaks do occur.)
There will also be associated impacts on traffic in the area. The construction, which will take place through much of the fall, is expected to result in parking restrictions, and periodic lane closures on Rosecrans.
Gas company officials said they recognized that the construction would likely produce delays, had reached out to the surrounding community to warn them.
“We know it’s a huge inconvenience, but we’re pretty confident that people know who to call,” Ochoa said. “And if they don’t, we’re here to let them know who they should call.”
But council members were concerned that SoCalGas had not properly assessed the true traffic impact. Last August, filming on a stretch of Vista del Mar during a summer weekend caused extensive backups, and prompted complaints from Manhattan business owners about the difficulty it added for customers to arrive and park. They questioned whether the company’s outreach, which included mailers to residents living within 500 feet of the project, had been adequate, and raised the prospect of traffic backing up all the way to downtown Manhattan.
“This causes problems. It’s a major thoroughfare to get in and out of the South Bay, a major thoroughfare for people to get to work,” said Mayor Tony D’Errico. “I’m not saying you can mitigate it all, but I want to know what to expect.”
The company expects to finish the first phase of the project Sept. 30. The second phase, will involve the installation of new pipe that will link up with an existing line running down El Segundo Boulevard, creating a loop along Rosecrans with north-south linkages along Highland and Aviation Boulevard.
Council members raised concerns that the pipe being installed for the loop project was far larger than those involved in the replacement project. Its diameter was 20 inches, while the segments of the replacement portion ranged between two and four inches, meaning that the added pipe could carry volumes of gas hundreds of times greater than the replacement.
When asked by Councilmember Mark Burton, Ochoa said she was not sure whether the loop line was used to serve industrial customers in El Segundo, but denied that it posed a threat to Manhattan residents.
Once approved by city engineers, construction will take place Monday through Saturday between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., though not on Saturday Oct. 1, the day of the Manhattan Beach 10k Run. The traditional course for the race winds down Rosecrans, and the utility will suspend construction until the following Monday.
“You can take away our utilities, but don’t take away our 10K,” said Councilmember Amy Howorth.
