Atlanta

Gas leak shuts down Peachtree Street in Midtown

ATLANTA — Peachtree Street in midtown Atlanta is back open after a gas leak shut down one of the city’s main traffic arteries during rush hour Wednesday afternoon.

The leak tangled traffic for hours throughout midtown as people tried to get home from work.

Channel 2’s Carl Willis was on scene the moment the gas was finally shut off hours after a crew drilled down and hit a line on Peachtree at 17th Street.

Truette Stubbs avoided the traffic himself, but ran into a taped-off scene out in front of his home.

"There's a tape across where I need to walk to, I'm going to go around it now and hope nobody calls me down," Stubbs told Willis as he tried to walk through the mess.

When the initial call went out, two buildings had to be evacuated on Peachtree, one of them the so-called Silhouette Building.

Residents in the area identified the company responsible for the line break as the same one that caused a water main break in the area just last week: S&N Communications. The company is in charge of installing Google Fiber in the metro area.

"We hope there's no property damage or any other complications, just traffic disruptions and that's it," said Paul Dimmick.

In late March, a similar scene unfolded in Brookhaven where crews installing Google Fiber struck a line at busy Ashford Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry roads.

"I try to be patient, and be silent about it. I know they're doing the best they can," Stubbs said.