Gas leaks and Cadent

[Tony Edwards]

A month ago advised of a gas leak in under road gas main in Waterloo road Ipswich discovered by Anglian water. Cadent checked close properties as mine with basements no gas risk . A week later at the end of my garden in a conservatory I advised them of a strong smell of gas. Promptly attending they created a hole outside the conservatory to vent the gas. Since then nothing has happened other than monitoring both road leaks by Cadent staff they are 'too busy' to say when Waterloo road and Little Bramford road will be opened up to sleeve repair the leaks. An Anglian water member advised they regularly report to Cadent smell of gas leaks when they open in street covers for water shut off points often all over older parts of Ipswich. The gas main in waterloo road was installed in1886 untouched since then said to have life of approx 70 years! In the winter gas pressure will be increased to meet seasonal demand leading to a larger leak? The plan to add hydrogen to the gas supply will sleeved old pipes cope with this change or is this a pipe dream of a gas industry desperately trying to see a future?
I was intrigues to read an account by a gas supply employee in the USA who said if leaks are not close to property they are just left! For sure nobody knows how much gas is venting from leaking supply pipes all over the country we are told a potent greenhouse gas!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

We had steel pipes all over the village, I used to regularly smell gas and report it, when walking over a near home narrow rail bridge. They would attend, probe the area, but do nothing more. Our local steel supply main ran down our back gardens, for several years, they would visit all of the back gardens and check for levels of leakage from the rusting steel pipes. Our pipes were then replaced with plastic about four years ago, running down the road out front. The entire village has been having pipes replaced with new, for the past five years. The had the bridge closed to traffic, for several weeks to replace those pipes.

I has to be a balancing act between cost, risk, and how much the lost gas is worth.

 

[bernardgreen]

This was a live gas main in the High Street. It was "sealed" by the clay soil. This seal was lost when the trench for the new plastic gas main was being dug. Rapid reaction by the staff got a temporary seal over the hole.

Over night the failed section was replaced without any loss of supply. A bypass pipe was fitted before the corroded pipe was replaced with a short length of plastic.

 

[gas112]

you say nothing has happened "other than monitoring " .
So something is happening it will be monitored on a daily or every two days where they will take reading up and down the street at various points(up to a couple of dozen points some times ) and the reading will be compared to the reading that have been taken previously and it is all worked out on a risk assessment criteria with a lot of factors taken into consideration such as how close to property . how many people live within a certain distance from the leak , whether the readings are stable /dropping or increasing .
Although people think a smell of gas is highly dangerous this is not always the case and the monitoring process keeps this in check .
They will get round to it depending on the time of year it can take several weeks