How close to a natural gas line can I build a driveway?

powerpace · Sep 6, 2013

My gas supply lines is buried 18 inches under a gravels drive. Inspected and has had concrete truck and dump trucks on it no problem.

JD 4520 · Sep 6, 2013

Len should be 24" down. Building a drive or road over a line is not a problem. An F350 will have zero effect. Go forth...

forgeblast · Sep 6, 2013

If I am not mistaken most states have a "one call" phone number. They will send someone out to mark where the line is. They might be able to give you the info you want.

Bird · Sep 6, 2013

hawkeye08 said:
Recently was going to put in a new water line so did the call before you dig thing (even though there are no utilities anywhere near where we were going to dig. Only thing we have is electrical and phone, no gas, no cable, etc. I had my ditch dug and was working on the water line when a locator showed up and looked confused. He was there to locate for natural gas (electric and phone locator had marked before we starting digging). I said we don't have any natural gas lines for miles. He actually wrote in his color coded marker paint NO NG and took pictures of it. It seems that they are all taking pictures now too.

The locator service here has a website, perhaps yours does also and you could ask questions there? or maybe find an email address to email them questions?

Last Fall, the City had to dig up a sewer line in my front yard and we had the same situation; no natural gas lines anywhere in the area, and no other underground utilities except water and sewer. But they still had to wait on the "official" locator to come spray different color paints on the grass and stick different colored flags in the ground.:laughing:

It's been 19 years since I worked as a "leakage technician" but I never heard of any distance concrete had to be from a gas line. It's certainly not unusual to have gas lines running under concrete streets, sidewalks, driveways, etc. Used to be (and still may be) a federal law requiring gas companies to check all their lines for leaks every 5 years in "residential" areas and once a year in areas with wall to wall concrete ("downtown" in cities).

Of course gas companies, and other utility companies, do have easements in some places, especially for the gas "mains" on which you cannot build anything that might restrict them and their equipment. I found one place in Pennsylvania where a concrete slab had been poured to build an automotive repair shop that was right over the gas main bringing the gas into town from the cross country pipeline. And they were going to have to tear it all up; lots of money wasted.

Midniteoyl · Sep 6, 2013

newbury said:
SAB
I've a residential natural gas line that "Miss Utility" mapped as running along the line of an existing concrete driveway. I want to extend the driveway. The ideal extension would have the driveway about 1 horizontal foot away from the gas line. I want to be able to drive my F350 loaded down the driveway. I understand the ramifications of driving heavy stuff OVER a gas line, and know I can't dig within a couple of feet of the line.

Ok.. again, from what I read here, you are extending an existing driveway that has an existing gas line running parallel to it. This gas line is approx 1' away from the existing drive. Although in your case you are not going over the existing gas line, you are allowed to, but must dig by hand with-in a certain number of feet of the gas line. In your case, however, I see absolutely no problem with scraping a couple of inches and laying gravel and a pad. You are not over the line, and will be approx a foot away both horizontally and vertically from the gas line. If you are uncertain, simply have the company doing the work go slow on that side of the drive.