NTSB Safety Recommendation Letter P-78-017

Page 1Official PDFNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. Honorable Michael A. Bilandic Mayor Chicago, I l l i n o i s 60601 \ SAFETY RECOMMENDAT I ON (s) A t 1:35 p.m. on October 1 4 , 1977, an explosion and f i r e destroyed a two-family house a t 4930 W . Cortez S t r e e t i n Chicago, I l l i n o i s . One person w a s k i l l e d , t h r e e persons were injured, and two adjacent houses were damaged. Natural gas had entered the building through a broken s e r v i c e head adapter which was used to connect i n s e r t e d p l a s t i c service li.nes to the riser and meter s e t on t h e i n s i d e of the building. The adapter was broken when a contractor, employed by the c i t y to remove s t r e e t curbs, pulled the 1 1/4-inch, plastic-encased s e r v i c e l i n e operating a t 1 / 4 p s i g . Under the Municipal Code of Chicago, all persons, contracting firms, developers, e t c . , a r e required to obtain permits from t h e Bureau of Streets f o r a l l work t h a t involves any p o r t i o n of t h e public way. The permittee i s then required to n o t i f y a l l affected u t i l i t i e s , i . e . , water, sewer, telephone, and g a s , of any planned excavations. This n o t i f i c a t i o n can be made by telephoning t h e Chicago U t i l i t y Alert Network (Digger), t h e one-call system f o r the c i t y of Chicago. The contractor i n t h i s case was working under a c i t y contract which included t h e permit. Even though the permit was not issued s e p a r a t e l y , t h e contractor was s t i l l responsi.ble f o r notifying the u t i l i t i e s of planned excavations. The c i t y engineer who was i n charge of t h i s p r o j e c t reported on t h e construction progress d a i l y to his o f f i c e , but he d i d not a s c e r t a i n whether t h e contractor w a s notifying the u t i l i t i e s of t h e l o c a t i o n of excavations by telephoning t h e one-call s y s t e m . Neither the contractor nor t h e one-call system n o t i f i e d the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company of t h e proposed excavation so it could mark its s e r v i c e l i n e s for t h i s project. There a l s o appears to have been a l a c k of communication between the c i t y and its contractor. 2330#

Page 2- 2 - Therefore, the National Transportation Safety Board recommends that the city of Chicago: Instruct its employees who monitor work of contractors performing construction for the city, to ascertain that the contractor has notified utilities of planned construction through use of the one-call notification system. (Class I, Urgent Action) (P-78-17) KING, Chairman, McADAMS, HOGUE, and DRIVER, Members, concurred in the above recommendation.#