Altagas Utilities crews were kept especially busy in the Westlock area last week with two separate incidents of gas leaks in the Westlock area.
The first was a leak downtown around 1 p.m. on Jan. 7, detailed in a story on Page 1 of this week’s Westlock News. While crews were busy containing that leak, however, a vehicle slid off Highway 44 near Busby around noon the same day, destroying an above-ground block valve assembly.
The highway south of Busby was reduced to a single lane of alternating traffic for several hours, with the Busby Fire Department Society providing semi-regular updates on the social media site Twitter.
Traffic was restored to one lane in each direction by 5:30 p.m., according to the Twitter feed.
Altagas president Greg Johnston said in an e-mail last week it’s highly unusual for two such incidents to take place at the same time, but the company was nonetheless able to ensure the problem was resolved and public safety was maintained.
“A Westlock field technician was dispatched to the site, as was a service crew from Leduc,” he said. “That situation was made safe by 2 a.m., but the coincidence of two significant incidents in one area of the province certainly tasked our emergency response efforts.”
He said the assistance of the Westlock and Busby fire departments was instrumental in bringing both incidents to a safe resolution.
Cold weather and freezing rain made roads treacherous in many parts of Westlock County last week, with several rollovers and vehicles sliding off the road.
While the Westlock RCMP couldn’t be reached by press time to provide specific details of how many incidents there were in the area, the Westlock News learned of at least a half dozen over the course the week.
Among the most significant was a rollover north of Dapp on Jan. 5, during which a vehicle rolled onto its roof in the parking lot of the Dapp Corner Store. Meanwhile a Jan. 7 incident near Alcomdale on Highway 44 led to numerous vehicles left scattered in both the east and west ditches.
A more serious incident took place south of the county’s borders on Jan. 9.
CTV News reported that at 8:50 a.m., a St. Albert RCMP officer in a marked vehicle slid off the road and rolled over on Highway 44 just north of the intersection with Highway 37.
He was on his way to a report of another rollover at the time. He was taken to hospital as a precaution as it’s believed he sustained minor injuries.
