Gas line work continues
Atmos Energy Mid-Tex Division currently lists half a dozen projects in various stages of completion in Albany, and anyone that has driven around the Kenshalo, Pate, Gregg, Jacobs, and Williams Street areas has probably noticed the crews at work, or at least the construction signs, trucks, trenches, and dirt mounds that are on display during the process.
According to city manager Billy Holson, Atmos is replacing all of their steel gas lines with poly lines.
For the most part, the projects do not involve City of Albany workers.
“They call in (when they move to a new area) and we locate buried utilities for them,” Holson said. “But other than that, we are not involved in the project.”
According to information at atmosenergy.com, stage 1 is completed, with 957’ of new 2” poly pipe installed at Kenshalo and Pate, and stage 2, installation of 20’ of 2” poly pipe at Williams and Kenshalo should be completed by mid September.
Stage 3 was completed over the summer, and was listed as abandoning district regulator station #9.
Stage 4, installing 1166’ of 2” poly pipe at North 7th and Jacobs is scheduled to be competed at the end of November, and stage 5, with installation of 567’ of poly pipe at North 6th and Jacobs is set to be finished in mid December.
Stage 6 included installing 652’ of new pipe on Gregg and Kenshalo, and was completed over the summer.
The company said that it is replacing aging pipes with modern, more durable plastic pipe.
The poly pipe is more corrosion resistant, less apt to rupture, easier to work with, and has a longer expected life span than steel.
On the down side, it is more likely to melt in a fire, and some of the plastic pipes that were manufactured and used for gas lines in the 1960s through early 1980s “may be susceptible to premature brittle-like failures,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Overall, the plastic pipe that is being used now is considered safer than steel in most low pressure gas lines, and has become the industry standard.
A metal wire is incorporated into the pipe or buried next to it so that the gas line can be located from above ground in the future.
Sewer/Street Grants
Holson said that the City of Albany has recently started the process of applying for federal and state block grants for upcoming projects.
“We are applying for block grants for sewer and street repairs on the northwest side of town,” Holson said. “These take a while, and are still two or three years down the road. We have just started the application process.”
