Gas crews from FortisBC will be working in Rossland next week, as part of the Columbia Avenue project.
The crews will be working mainly up and down Washington Street installing new natural gas pipes.
Gene Deering, crew leader for FortisBC, said that over the course of the upgrade, over the next few weeks, they may have to purge some of the gas.
“The odd time you’re going to get some odours out of that,” Deering said. “It’s just a possibility that people are going to smell it and we don’t want anybody getting too excited.”
He said it would be a minimal amount of gas.
The work has to be done because the new design for Columbia Avenue lowers the grade of the road.
“Our steel (pipes) is going to be too high once we’ve dug down,” he said. The distribution line runs down Washington, across Columbia, then through alleyway beside Subway. They will remove the steel line and install a new plastic line, through casing that have been installed by Copcan.
“The biggest part of the job is tying into the steel.”
The work is expected to start Monday.