Gas-line work returns on Secor between Monroe, Central in West Toledo

1/9/2013

Monroe Street motorists: Your Christmas break from gas-line construction is about to end.

Work to relocate Columbia Gas mains along Secor Road between Monroe and Central Avenue resumed Monday after being suspended just before Thanksgiving for the peak holiday shopping period.

Next week, the portion of the work most disruptive to traffic will resume, too: laying new gas mains beneath Monroe in the Secor and Sylvania Avenue area.

“The work has to happen sometime,” Chris Kozak, a Columbia Gas spokesman, said Tuesday.

And it is expected to take longer than announced — about eight to 10 weeks, instead of five or six — because of winter weather and “the number of crews we have available to dedicate to that project,” Mr. Kozak said.

Columbia is replacing about 7,000 feet of gas mains along Secor and part of Monroe that intersects Secor in preparation for a city reconstruction of Secor later this year between Monroe and Central.

The utility is laying the Secor gas main off to the side of the roadway but was unable to get all the easements it needed to do so along Monroe.

Building the pipeline under the street will close Monroe’s center lane and, during working hours, its left lanes between Secor and Sylvania.

Columbia initially planned to work through December and complete its project by early this month.

But after The Blade published a story about that plan in mid-November, city and utility officials decided to suspend work before Thanksgiving and resume it this week to minimize disruptions in the busy commercial area. Along with businesses, Monroe between Secor and Sylvania is a major link between I-475 and Westfield Franklin Park mall.

A city lane-closing notice said gas-line work along Secor now is expected to end by March 1.