Update on gas pipeline testing near campus

Just before Thanksgiving, PG&E work crews finished the hydrostatic pressure testing of gas transmission pipeline 132 near the Stanford campus. Two sections of pipe, called T-30 and T-31, were tested to more than 1.5 times their maximum allowable operating pressure. In the run up to the final test, both pipe sections experienced problems. However, repairs were made and the pipe has now met the pressure testing requirements. Preliminary testing of section T-30 - which runs from Alma Street in Palo Alto along Page Mill Road to Junipero Serra Boulevard, then across a corner of the golf course, across Alpine Road, along Stanford Hills to Sand Hill Road and Branner Drive in Menlo Park - found a small corrosion problem near Hanover Street on Page Mill Road. According to PG&E, the corrosion was the result of deterioration of the protective coating on the pipe that caused a small hole to develop. Work crews uncovered the pipe and repaired it by welding a protective sleeve around the affected section, then putting new protective coating on it.