NORTH BERGEN, N.J. — A construction crew ruptured a gas main Thursday, forcing police to shut down train service into Manhattan for four hours and close two exits on a main artery out of the Lincoln Tunnel, reports the Bergen Record.
The 9 a.m. accident in front of the Palace Hotel on Tonnelle Avenue released gas fumes into the air, but there was no fire and no injuries were reported, said Lt. Joseph Bode of the North Bergen Police Department.
NJ Transit and Amtrak resumed service into Manhattan around 1 p.m. after determining that the fumes posed no threat, said Micah Rasmussen, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. Thirty-five trains and 1,600 rail passengers were affected.
Traffic was disrupted along Route 495, which leads out of the Lincoln Tunnel, as authorities sealed off the road’s exits to Tonnelle Avenue and Routes 1 & 9 for about six hours.
Joey Anderson, a spokeswoman for Public Service Electric andGas Co., said the hotel was the only customer that lost gas service. The hotel and several other businesses were evacuated for several hours, she said.
Police, fire, and utility officials were expected to repair the leak by early today, Anderson said.
A backhoe operated by Kemsco Construction and Equipment Co. of Newark ruptured the gas line, Rasmussen said. Kemsco was a subcontractor for Anselmi DiCicco, a company hired by the Department of Transportation to perform construction at Routes 1 and 9 and the Amtrak bridge in North Bergen.
Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox said the accident appeared to have stemmed from an outdated utility grid map. “I have no reason to believe that the contractor or the subcontractor did anything inappropriate,” he said. “They seemed to have followed every procedure that they were required to do.”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Kemsco was cited in 2001 for violating Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards at an excavation site at Tonnelle Avenue and Union Turnpike in North Bergen.