City Wants to Move Line 132 to Lawndale Boulevard

Pacific Gas & Electric Company is narrowing down locations for a new gas pipeline that would replace the South San Francisco segment of line 132, whose rupture led to the San Bruno explosion.

In a meeting last week, PG&E representatives presented several alternative routes for the gas transmission pipeline, now too close for comfort to Sunshine Gardens backyards, city officials said.

The pipeline section runs through the western part of the city between Ferndale and Gardenside avenues and continues southeast down Mission Road to Chestnut Avenue.

City officials said they favor the option of rerouting the line along Lawndale Boulevard, where it would connect with Mission Road.

“It’s a win for South City because we are going to have a state-of-the-art line replacing 132,” Mayor Kevin Mullin said. “The company will be removing it from this easement which runs right behind folks' homes and putting it on a very wide street with Lawndale.”

Built in 1948, PG&E has named the gas line segment one of its .

In the wake of September’s disaster in San Bruno, which destroyed 38 homes and left eight people dead, city officials have pressured PG&E to speed up replacement of the aging line.

Company spokeswoman Brittany Chord said PG&E will start construction on the South San Francisco piece, which runs from Hillside Boulevard to Chestnut Avenue, beginning next April.

“The project is still in its planning phases,” Chord said, adding that she wasn’t immediately able to confirm potential locations for the new line.

PG&E has been conducting thorough testing of the line. Beginning in June, the company used video cameras to inspect the line and later conducted hydrostatic tests, Chord said.

The line passed the tests, Chord said, but , prompting the company to bring in third-party evaluators to double check the segment.

“Because we are taking this very conservative approach we want to assess the condition of the pipe before putting it back to service,” she said.

On Tuesday the company sent a letter to neighbors about this development. The company expects the gas line to be back up and running in coming weeks, Chord said.

The line 132 segment runs along a utility easement in the Sunshine Gardens neighborhood and would be problematic to rebuild, said Public Works Director Terry White.

“It cuts right through the middle of the neighborhood so their backyard backs up to this easement,” White said.

On June 22 PG&E presented five alternatives to city leaders, but three of them weren’t really viable because they ran through other streets in the same neighborhood, he said.

Another option being considered by PG&E is putting the line on Chestnut Avenue, White said, although from the city’s standpoint this location isn’t ideal because it would still lie close to homes.

“You would have a lot more people on Chestnut Avenue saying, ‘we don’t want this pipe here,’” he said.

The Lawndale route is superior because it’s farther from the neighborhood, Mullin said.

White said, however, that the utility company has the right to put a new line in the existing location. The city primarily wants “this line replaced with new pipe, newer technology, better testing for the wells," he said.

Since Lawndale Boulevard defines the Colma-South San Francisco border, PG&E will have to also negotiate with the city of Colma.

White said the city will continue to press PG&E to follow through switching out the pipeline. “It’s certainly council’s intention to hold their feet to the fire that they are going to replace this segment of line that they deemed had an unacceptable high risk of failure,” he said.