I live in the Houston area of Texas. While we were in the midst of excavating a pool, we unexpectedly discovered a Center Point gas line in my backyard that requires rerouting. We reached out to CenterPoint six days ago, but we have not received any response, neither a call back nor an email from them. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation with CenterPoint recently?
Rerouting Gas line
- Thread starter Paddy83
- Start date
That is strange. Usually the PB requires that Centerpoint comes out prior to excavation to mark all lines such as gas, electric and cable. I would call their emergency number.
- Jun 7, 2017
- 9,108
- Pool Size
- 29000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
This is a nightmare scenario. Please keep us posted! If at all possible, I think I would try to redesign the pool to where the gas line is not in the way. This has massive delays and big bucks written all over it.
Are you sure it was a Centerpoint line and not a separate line going to a gas grill, fire pit, etc? The former should have definitely been marked, the latter may or may not have been possible to mark. I had to have both moved this past summer and whoever put the gas grill in didn't put a tracer wire down so that line couldn't be marked. Any plumber can move that type of gas line though so it wasn't a big deal.
The gas line going to your house does require Centerpoint to move. It only costs $350. The harder part is the wait. There is some back and forth with documents and payment, and then it was scheduled for a month after that for me.
Did you get a case number from the first call? It wouldn't hurt to call back and follow up with that.
The gas line going to your house does require Centerpoint to move. It only costs $350. The harder part is the wait. There is some back and forth with documents and payment, and then it was scheduled for a month after that for me.
Did you get a case number from the first call? It wouldn't hurt to call back and follow up with that.
Tell them you hit the gas line, which is true. Forget to mention it wasn't damaged. You'll have the calvary there in minutes. 
It is a law that before they do any digging, they call 811 for a markout. That is on the contractor, not Centerpoint. Excavation without a markout is a huge fine (and accident waiting to happy). Now if as others have said, it is a "personal" gas line to a fire pit or something like that, it is very possible that a markout was called in, and it was not marked out.
When a 811 markout is called in, the utilities in that municipality all get notified. The contractor submits where they will be digging, and the utilities look at their plats. If they see that they have no utilities anywhere near there, they will often just mark the ticket resolved without going out to the location.
I used to manage the contractors that did this in New Jersey, and used to be on the Common Ground Alliance / North American Telecommunications Damage Prevention Council.
Common Ground Alliance
commongroundalliance.com
The whole reason this came about is because people actually died because of it.