Traffic near the intersection of Fair Lawn Avenue and Plaza Road will be confined to a single westbound lane on Fair Lawn Avenue and a single northbound lane on Plaza Road for a couple weeks while crews install a new gas main, Lt. Derek Bastinck said Thursday.

Bastinck said it had become inefficient to continue making minor fixes to the 100-year-old pipe that runs underneath Fair Lawn Avenue and Plaza Road, so a complete main replacement was deemed necessary.

"We get calls every once in a while from people who smell gas and it’s just a slow, tiny leak and they’re not able to efficiently fix it," he said. "They go in, they think they have it fixed and then another one pops, so they’re just going to put in all new stuff."

Homes and businesses in the area will not be affected during the construction, which began Monday, Bastinck said.

"They’re pretty crafty on how they can keep pressure to anybody, so nobody is going to lose pressure," he said. "If they do have to shut it down, they’ll schedule it at 3 or 4 a.m."

The construction runs westbound along Fair Lawn Avenue from just before the corner of Plaza Road to the Deals store, and on Plaza Road northbound from Fair Lawn Avenue up the length of the Plaza Building.

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