My company hasn’t ignored regular maintenance and upgrades. We are 100% regulated. We are required by law to do certain things. And if we don’t, we get massive fines for it. I can’t even tell you how many miles of pipe we have that we are trying to replace. And we have been for years. It takes alot of time and resources to do it. It’s not something we can accomplish quickly or we would have already finished it. I understand the frustration of people when their bills rise. Heck, my electric bill has increased quite a bit. I ain’t happy about it. But it is what it is. My own family complains to me about their gas bills. Like I can do anything about it. Another thing we have to consider is doing things safely. When pipelines are being replaced there is a huge risk involved. People have died because of explosions. It can wipe out entire blocks or worse. It isn’t something we just rush into doing. I wish people knew how much training we have to go through and tests we have to take to be able to work in the field. Especially to work on pipelines and regulator stations.
Apparently someone had located the gas line in the wrong place and they ripped up the line running from the street to the house before the meter. FD showed up right away and evacuated the area.
