Con Ed workers prepare to check one of three manholes on Church Street, near Leonard, following report of a gas leak. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
Updated 3/17/14
Following a gas leak that shut down two blocks of Church Street Friday evening, Con Ed says gas levels are back to normal at two telephone manholes near the corner of Church and Leonard Streets.
When Con-Edison crews responded at about 6:35 p.m. on Friday, they found gas seepage at the manholes, with 20 percent of the air at one of them filled with gas. The other had a 4.7 percent reading, according to a company spokesman. The crews pulled both manhole covers for ventilation, completely removing the gas from one manhole, and clearing almost all the gas from the other, the spokesman said.
No buildings were evacuated and no one was injured, according to the spokesman.
Shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday, six FDNY units responded to the leak. The emergency closed off Church Street between between Franklin and Worth, creating heavy rush-hour traffic tie-ups in the area. The street was reopened later that evening.
The leak, just outside the towering residential construction project at 56 Leonard St., came on the heels of the gas explosion in East Harlem that claimed eight lives and leveled two buildings.