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Years after Harlem gas explosion, New York sets stricter rules on plastic pipes

Four years after a gas explosion in New York City claimed eight lives, and in light of more recent qualifications exam cheating, New York state regulators set stricter requirements for inspections of plastic gas pipeline installations.

Inspectors who have approved visually unacceptable plastic pipeline fusions will be disqualified from inspecting any more fusions until they are fully retrained and requalified, the New York State Public Service Commission announced May 17.

The commission will require companies to review other fusions inspected by an inspector who OK'd an unacceptable fusion as well as other fusions completed by workers who have done improper ones.

The state's gas utilities also will have to develop quality assurance and control programs, setting procedures for determining when reinspections are required. These programs will require the approval of the PSC's Department of Public Service.

"The commission's ongoing commitment to adopt well-reasoned, stringent improvements in gas safety regulations better ensure[s] that the infrastructure and underground pipes that transport and deliver gas to consumers are properly maintained and secured, and that the utilities face severe financial penalties if they fail to adhere to the safety regulations," PSC Chair John Rhodes said in a May 17 statement.

SNL Image

After the 2014 Harlem explosion, investigators found a gap of about a quarter-inch between the main and saddle tee, or connecting piece.

Source: National Transportation Safety Board

A March 2014 explosion on Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc.'s pipeline system in the Harlem neighborhood prompted the commission to look more closely at utilities' pipeline fusion procedures. The fusion between the gas distribution main and the service line at the explosion site was not correctly completed, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. About 60% of the bond between the two pieces had been incompletely fused, indicating a weld defect and weak bond strength and contributing to the explosion, according to the board.

The contractor who performed that fusion had let his certification with the Consolidated Edison Inc. subsidiary lapse, and the federal safety board found that several other contractors were in a similar position. The board at that time recommended that the state PSC rethink the way it looks at employee qualifications related to this kind of work.

The New York PSC looked into the issue further and found that the worker's testing had not included a certain hands-on portion of plastic fusion qualification, which the PSC described as a "vital component" to show proficiency.

Separately, the PSC launched multiple investigations after discovering that the employees of two separate contractors who had completed work for ConEd and National Grid PLC had cheated on qualification exams.

"Subsequent inspections of construction jobs completed by the two construction companies have revealed problems," the PSC said in its May 18 order related to the new gas safety rules. "Not only have some of the installed fusions failed visual inspection, but other work that was supposed to have been inspected by the [local distribution companies] showed problems that should have been found through required inspection ... before being placed into service and before undergoing excavation and inspection (re-dig) in response to the cheating."

The new fusion requirements are intended to address some of those concerns, the PSC said.