UPDATE: Mayfair Road Reopens Following Gas Line Incident

This story was updated at 11:25 a.m. after Mayfair Road was reopened.

Portions of northbound and southbound Mayfair Road were closed for about two hours Monday morning after workers struck a gas line at 2001 N. Mayfair Rd., said.

Mayfair Road was closed from North Avenue to Watertown Plank Road. In addition, the I-45 ramp on to northbound Mayfair Road was closed, and staff were evacuated from two buildings near the break. The road reopened at about 11: 20 a.m.

Crews struck a natural gas service line that connects with a natural gas main at about 9:30 a.m., said We Energies spokesman Barry McNulty. That service line was pulled out of the main and plugged shortly before 11 a.m. The gas was shut off, he added.

Wauwatosa Fire Chief Rob Ugaste said he had been told that the 4-inch gas line had somehow remained undetected and unmarked during preparations for the ongoing utilty reconstruction project along North Mayfair Road.

He also said that when We Energies crews and contractors arrived at the scene, they initially could not locate valves to shut off gas to the damaged section of pipe.

Utility workers made a temporary fix to the pipe with the gas still flowing, Ugaste said. As of 11 a.m., when he held a press briefing in the parking lot of the DSW Shoe Warehouse, 2265 N. Mayfair, he said utility and public safety personnel were not satisfied that the temporary repair was safe and that the busy thoroughfare would remain closed indefinitely.

However, even as he was speaking, utility workers finally located the shutoff valves and announced that the road could be reopened to traffic.

Six units responded to the scene and the city received mutual aid support from the Butler Fire Department.

The store and the nearby United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1444 building were evacuated, police said.