A major natural gas leak left thousands of homes without power, led to preventive evacuations and caused the partial closure of Taschereau Boulevard in Longueuil on Sunday morning. Traffic should be restored by 5 a.m. Monday morning, Énergir said.
The Longueuil Agglomeration Police Service (SPAL) was able to confirm early this afternoon that it was a natural gas leak.
It is believed to have occurred a little before 9:15 a.m., near Boulevard Taschereau, at the level of Chemin du Coteau-Rouge.
As a preventive measure, the artery had been closed to traffic between Curé-Poirier Boulevard and the access to the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. The lanes have since been reopened, but only towards Brossard.
Shortly after 6 p.m., the company Énergir, which is carrying out work on the gas lines, informed The Press that the pipe from which the leak came had been pinched, both upstream and downstream of it. The leak was therefore sealed on Sunday evening, but several more hours of work will be needed to completely resolve the problem.
“We still need to open the street above the leak, plug it, and then re-pave it overnight so that it will be passable tomorrow morning during rush hour,” explains Lambert Gosselin, spokesperson for Énergir. “If other work needs to be done, it will be planned later.”
He estimates that traffic should be restored by 5 a.m. Monday morning. “We’ve already come a long way. The weather could play tricks on us, but we hope not,” he says.
Preventive evacuations
Around 200 people also had to be evacuated on Sunday morning as a precautionary measure.
“In the morning, we didn’t know where the leak was coming from,” explains Lambert Gosselin. It was finally located under the roadway, at the level of Taschereau Boulevard. Once all risk of a leak in a residence had been ruled out, the people concerned were able to return home.
By Sunday evening, “all residents had returned to their homes,” said Annie Bilodeau, spokesperson for the Longueuil Fire Department.
Power cuts in the area
Nearly 20,000 homes were without power in the area due to the gas leak. By early afternoon, most had their power restored. By 6 p.m., fewer than 500 Hydro-Québec customers were still waiting to be reconnected.
SCREENSHOT OF THE HYDRO-QUÉBEC WEBSITE
The breakdown situation at noon.
No injuries were reported.
With the ramp leading from Taschereau Boulevard to the Jacques-Cartier Bridge still inaccessible, the police department is asking the public to avoid the area. “Traffic disruptions are to be expected,” said François Boucher, spokesperson for SPAL.