Workers for Peoples Natural Gas make repairs on a gas line leak at 13th Street and 13th Avenue in Altoona on Tuesday after a contractor’s backhoe cut into the gas main. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

A contractor’s backhoe Tuesday morning cut into a gas main on 13th Avenue near 13th Street, causing a leak that led to the evacuation of nearby Blair Senior Services and TLC Childcare at First Lutheran Church.

Dixon Electric of Claysburg was digging to lay conduit in preparation for replacing the traffic signals at the intersection near the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, and encountered the approximately 10-inch gas line at the expected location — but significantly shallower than such lines are typically located, said Dixon Construction Supervisor Kevin Colasante.

“They’re usually 3 or 4 feet (deep),” which would have been deeper than the hole the backhoe operator was planning to dig, Colasante said.

Workers summoned through the “One Call” system to locate such lines in preparation for digging can’t tell their depth with the instruments they use, Colasante said.

Peoples Natural Gas sent a repair crew, and the line was back in service mid-morning.

TLC “erred on the side of caution” in evacuating the child care site, said Director Barb Crago.

Staffers first noticed the “pungent” smell inside and out, Crago said.

They called the Altoona Fire Department and gas company, visited the nearby office of state Rep. Lou Schmitt, where they learned about the leak; and after seeing that Blair Senior Services across the avenue was emptying out, ordered the evacuation, Crago said.

Staffers didn’t want to subject the children and their “little lungs” to the gas, Crago said.

The program used its automatic call system to summon parents or their emergency contacts to retrieve the children, Crago said.

The 101 children who were in the building and the 24 staffers — except Crago — were gone in about half an hour.

The automatic alert system also contacted the families of about 20 children who hadn’t yet arrived, Crago said.

Crago remained so that she could meet children who would be discharged later in the day from buses for “after school care.”

At Blair Senior Services, a staffer smelled gas, after which there was a call to Peoples, which recommended evacuating, said agency President Steve Williamson.

Management closed the center, sending home the staff and the approximately 10 others present at the time, Williamson said.

After the leak was fixed, staffers who lived nearby came back to work, while the rest finished the day working remotely, Williamson said.

A contingent of the staff had been working remotely anyway, Williamson said.

Some activities that were scheduled for Tuesday were rescheduled, and some counseling sessions were conducted by phone, Williamson said.

“It was not terrible,” Williamson said of the experience.

Work on the traffic signals and other infrastructure at 13th Avenue and 13th Street, along with similar work at 13th Avenue and 12th Street, is being done under a $1.6 million city contract with Cottle’s Asphalt Maintenance, according to Public Works Director Nate Kissell. Dixon is the electrical subcontractor. Cottle’s’ work includes ramps, crosswalks, paving and storm sewers.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.