VANCOUVER – The mayor of Coquitlam is once again raising concerns about work along a major artery being done by FortisBC after he says there was another gas leak overnight.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Mayor Richard Stewart said there the leak happened in the 700 block of Como Lake Avenue, the site of ongoing gas line construction work.

“This has happened several times along this corridor where an existing crossed utility has been damaged or developed a leak,” said Stewart. “It’s a real challenge for the neighbourhood that’s suffered an awful lot in the last eight months from the construction of this pipeline.”

FortisBC says there had been a small leak to a service line in a home, and it was not related to the gas line construction activities in the area.

“Crews worked late into the night to make repairs, which caused some lane closures,” said FortisBC in a statement. “Repairs were completed, and lanes were re-opened at approximately 1:30 a.m. this morning.”

FortisBC confirmed that the leak was not caused by the construction crews in the area and that the leak took place when a service line disconnected from a fitting because of ground settlement.

The worksite has been closed before because of what the company referred to as “ground movement.” A stretch of the road collapsed near Banting Street in late April. The mayor described the issue as a “sinkhole” at the time, but FortisBC denied that characterization.

"It's not really a sinkhole, just a depression of the pavement," said Doug Stout, the vice-president of market development and external relations, in the spring.

FortisBC says the new 30-inch gas line has now been installed in Burnaby and Coquitlam and they are now working to test it and connect it to their existing system and installing valves.

Stewart says residents of this block of Como Lake Avenue have had to endure non-stop construction, noise from idling trucks and generators, as well as several gas leaks.

“This particular block is the one where we have the most justifiable complaints from residents, partly because of the enormous challenges that those residents faced from when the sinkhole happened and then when the sloughing happened,” he said. “All the way through this project it seemed many of the challenges were concentrated in a two block section.”

FortisBC is replacing 20 kilometres of natural gas line from Vancouver to Coquitlam. While FortisBC says they are on schedule to finish construction on the upgrades this year, Stewart says the community will be dealing with its related impacts, including repairs to pavement, for quite some time.

“We’re actually quite pleased with the progress that has taken place over the last two months where they really managed to throw more crews on it and get the project substantially complete to the point where most of Como Lake is back open to four lanes,” he said. “The gas leak last night reminded us all that we’re going to be facing challenges for months to come.”