Gas leak along W Spruce Avenue in Montesano secured

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026

The five-month Main/Spruce Pedestrian Safety Improvement Project that began earlier this month in Montesano resulted in an incident on Tuesday morning that required evacuations and a multi-agency response. On W Spruce Avenue, between N 1st Street and N Main Street, construction crews struck a natural gas line with an excavator, resulting in a gas leak.

In the press release the city issued later that evening, “Out of an abundance of caution, nearby residences were evacuated and portion of the surrounding area were temporarily closed to traffic while emergency personnel worked to secure the scene and protect public safety.”

Further details for what was a long day for the personnel responding to the incident were shared at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Agencies responding included Montesano Police and Fire Departments, Montesano Public Works Department, Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office, Grays Harbor Fire District No. 2, and Grays Harbor County Emergency Management. Cascade Natural Gas also responded, and a number of their vehicles were still on site prior to the start of the city council meeting at 7 p.m.

Fire Chief David Busz was the incident commander. In his remarks to the City Council, he shared that upon arriving at the scene, fire and police personnel evacuated and isolated homes and businesses. Additionally, “we were able to, and with Sheriff Wallace and emergency management, make sure that we were taking care of the inmates and all the staff at the jail, the county courthouse, as well of all of our citizens in their houses,” he said.

Seven hours passed until Cascade Natural Gas secured the leak at 4 p.m. Fortunately, because of how the break in the line happened, the gas leaked underground instead of in to atmosphere.

“It just saturated the soil, and so now it will be a slow off gas of natural gas,” Busz said. “And the soil type will organically metabolize most of the hydrocarbon pieces of [the gas].”

With the gas leak secured, residents returned to their residences.

Busz cited Police Chief Robert Wilson as “integral on a lot of the communication” and that partnering with Grays Harbor Emergency Management “is paying off dividends through the incident command structure, but also those relationships because Chief Wilson was able to kind of provide some initial insight.”

And Busz also credited city staff, “I would like to say the staff obviously did a lot, most of the work today. It’s pretty easy, as administrators, to sit back and watch them do their stuff.”

What is the Main/Spruce Pedestrian Safety Improvement Project?

The Main/Spruce Pedestrian Safety Improvement Project, which broke ground on May 11, is a multi-street project that will improve pedestrian safety on Main Street and W Spruce Avenue when it’s completed in September 2026. These streets were identified in the Safe Streets 4 All (SS4A) planning document that was produced in 2023 as needing pedestrian safety improvements.

The city of Montesano was “one of the few communities in the state that received a SS4A planning grant,” said Mike Olden, P.E., public works/community development director. “It looked pretty funny on the map of the United States where the dollars went. There’s this tiny town that got a grant to do one of these plans.”

A reason W Spruce Avenue was called out is because of pedestrian traffic, with people going back and forth between parking and the courthouse or the forestry building. A fatality also happened on the street some years ago, and there’s been a number of near misses at the Main Street and W Spruce Avenue intersection.

Additionally, “the 3rd Street intersection has always been troubling because of speed coming down the hill and the school kid traffic,” Olden said. “And then the Broadway/Main intersection has always been about near misses. A lot of people don’t know how to navigate that intersection because there’s tough sight lines.”

The project calls for installing four-way stops, which Olden described as “a blessing and a curse.”

“People who want to get through town really fast will not like it, but generally it helps the driver interaction, as well as the pedestrian safety,” he said.

A combination of state funding from the Highway Safety Improvement Program and the Transportation Improvement Board is funding the pedestrian safety improvements.

At the April 14 City Council meeting, the council approved awarding Toledo-based Midway Underground LLC, the contract for $2.6 million. For her Council remarks, Councilmember Valerie Jester said, “I’m excited about our new street project. I think this will be a really valuable asset for the city long term.”

When the project is finished, the intersections will have new curb cuts, also known as ADA (Americans with Disability Act) ramps, to comply with ADA requirements on mobility standards, Olden said. “So that’ll make access for elderly and disabled quite a bit better.”

Another pedestrian safety improvement will be bulb-outs, which are also called curb extensions.

“I’ll get certain comments from folks that, ‘Oh, I don’t like those,’ but they have a lot of purpose to them in that they create more real estate, so to speak, to put a milder curb ramp,” said Olden, adding that “the other part of it is when you do bring your curbs out into the street farther, you create better sight lines for pedestrians and they have a shorter distance to cross the street. And it also creates visual friction for people.”

This visual friction causes drivers to slow down, “which is good,” said Olden.

The project begins at the intersection of W Spruce Avenue and 1st Street, with crews working their way east to Main Street. In addition to pedestrian safety improvements, water system improvements, with new storm drains being placed; this work is funded through city stormwater funds.

“We have some minor flooding issues back on Spruce and 1st Street, and so we’re doing some additional storm water work to clear that up,” Olden said.

Combining pedestrian safety improvements with water system improvements is a cost-effective approach to accomplish both goals.

“The surface restoration is really expensive when you do a standalone utility project,” said Olden. “These state funds cover quite a bit of that surface restoration part of it.”

The timeline is to work on the east section of Spruce Avenue to Main Street from May through July; the section between Fleet Street and W Spruce Avenue during June through August; Main Street between Broadway and W Spruce Avenue during June and July; and the stretch of W Spruce Avenue from 3rd to Helens Lane August through September.

Because of the road closures will affect residents and drivers, Olden is working to make navigating this section of town as easy as it can be, given that heavy equipment is running and sidewalks are being torn up.

Although the Montesano Food Bank is located where construction is occurring, the contractor isn’t working on Fridays, which is when the food bank offers drive-up service. Olden is working with them to ensure their operations aren’t greatly impacted.

And the deadline for completing Main Street is driven by the 24th Annual Historic Montesano Car Show scheduled for Saturday, July 18.

As for the next five months, Olden said, “I would just ask that people be patient and take alternate routes.”