Gas leak supports traffic, forces bar to evacuate in downtown Duluth

A crew installing a fiber optic line conduit under a downtown Duluth sidewalk nicked a 1-inch gas line Tuesday afternoon, creating a leak that went into the ground and came into a business basement.

The Duluth Fire Department reported that it evacuated the basement at Tycoons Alehouse & Eatery, known as the Rathskeller, at about 3:30 as a precaution as others tried to find the gas shutoff valve on Michigan Street between First and Second avenues.

City utility workers and firefighters left the scene in a few hours. The amount of gas leaked was minimal, the fire department reported, but the smell of gas could be detected on the street level.

Traffic was backed up on the one-way Michigan Street as drivers had to take an unexpected turn left up to Superior Street.

The crew laying the conduit, from NexLevel out of Maple Lake, Minn., apparently bore a hole for the plastic sheathing that holds fiber optic lines. It hit the gas line as the tool was being pulled back out of the horizontal hole.

April 25, 2012

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