A major gasoline pipeline serving metro Atlanta was restarted early Sunday, ending a five-day shutdown caused by a work accident on the line in Alabama.
Colonial Pipeline, the Alpharetta-based operator of the line, said flow resumed about 5:45 a.m. CST after successful replacement of a section damaged in an explosion and fire.
The company added that “it is expected to take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal.”
However, industry experts said a restart this weekend would likely mean the Atlanta area will avoid the kind of spot outages at gas stations seen in early September, when the same line was out of service for 11 days.
The latest shutdown has boosted prices, however. The average Sunday in metro Atlanta was $2.31 a gallon for unleaded regular, up from $2.19 before last week’s accident.
Last week’s shutdown occurred when a work crew for a contractor struck the line with a trackhoe in a rural area outside Birmingham, Colonial said. One worker died and five others were hurt.
The September shutdown was caused by a leak in the same area. A bypass was installed to restore the flow at that time. The crew involved in last week’s accident was working on a project related to a longer-term plan to replace the bypass with a permanent section of new pipe.
Colonial’s network includes two major pipelines, running more than 5,000 miles from Houston to New Jersey and carrying gasoline and other fuels from Gulf refineries to distribution terminals along the eastern seaboard.
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