All road closures lifted downtown after gas leak

All roads have reopened downtown following a large gas leak that shut down a section of the core Tuesday afternoon.

A radius of four city blocks around Queen Street were evacuated and closed due to the leak, which sprung around 1:20 p.m., Ottawa Fire said. Gas was shut off around 4:20 p.m.

The leak happened after a subcontractor operating an excavator for streetscaping on Queen Street for Confederation Line construction struck a gas line, said the Rideau Transit Group, the company responsible for light rail construction.

The City of Ottawa tweeted after 6 p.m. that buildings were cleared for re-entry.

Roads remained closed throughout the height of the afternoon commute.

Albert, Queen and Sparks Streets were closed from O’Connor to Elgin Streets. Metcalfe and O’Connor were closed between Wellington to Albert Streets.

Traffic slowed to a crawl and OC Transpo reported delays of up to 30 minutes. Some said on Twitter they waited over an hour for their bus to arrive. Gas leak downtown May 2