PSC 192.246w Precautions to Avoid Explosions of Gas-Air Mixtures or Uncontrolled Fires During Construction Operations. (a) Operations such as gas or electric welding and cutting with cutting torches can be safely performed on pipelines and mains and auxiliary equipment, provided that they are completely full of gas, or air that is free from combustible material. Steps shall be taken to prevent a mixture of gas and air at all points where such operations are to be performed.
(b) When a pipeline or main can be kept full of gas during a welding or cutting operation, the following procedures are recommended:
(1) Keep a slight flow of gas moving toward the point where cutting or welding is being done.
(2) The gas pressure at the site of the work shall be controlled by suitable means.
(3) Close all slots or open ends immediately after they are cut with tape, or with tape and tightly fitting canvas or other suitable material.
(4) Two openings may not remain uncovered at the same time.
(c) No welding or acetylene cutting shall be done on a pipeline, main, or auxiliary apparatus that contains air if it is connected to a source of gas, unless a suitable means has been provided to prevent the leakage of gas into the pipeline or mains.
(d) In situations where welding or cutting must be done on facilities which are filled with air and connected to a source of gas and the precautions in par. (b) cannot be taken, one or more of the following precautions, depending upon the circumstances at the job are required:
(1) Purging of the pipe or equipment upon which welding or cutting is to be done, with combustible gas or inert gas.
(2) Testing of the atmosphere in the vicinity of the zone to be heated before the work is started and at intervals as the work progresses, with a combustible gas indicator or by other suitable means.
(3) Careful verification before the work starts that the valves that isolate the work from a source of gas do not leak.
PSC 135.246 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(1w) Copper pipe shall be joined by using either a compression type coupling or a brazed or soldered lap joint. The filler material used for brazing shall be a copper-phosphorous alloy or silver base alloy. Butt welds are not permissible for joining copper pipe or tubing.
PSC 135.279 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(1w) Detection of gouges and grooves. The field inspection provided on each job shall be suitable to reduce to an acceptable minimum the chances that gouged or grooved pipe will get into the finished transmission line or main. Inspection for this purpose just ahead of the coating operation and during the lowering in and backfill operation is required.
PSC 135.307 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(fw) Due primarily to climate conditions, gouges, grooves, notches, and dents have been found to be an important cause of steel pipe failures and an attempt shall be made to prevent or eliminate harmful defects of this nature. Section 192.309 (b) pertains to transmission lines and mains intended to operate at hoop stresses of 20% or 40% or more of the specified minimum yield strength. However, applicable portions of these paragraphs shall apply to facilities intended to operate below this hoop stress level.
PSC 135.309 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
PSC 135.319
PSC 135.319 Installation of pipe in a ditch additions [49 CFR 192.319].
(aw) This includes grading the ditch so that the pipe has a firm, substantially continuous bearing on the bottom of the ditch. When long sections of pipe that have been welded alongside the ditch are lowered in, care shall be exercised so as not to jerk the pipe or impose any strains that may kink or put a permanent bend in the pipe.
(3w) If there are large rocks in the material to be used for backfill, care should be used to prevent damage to the coating or pipe by such means as the use of rock shield material, or by making the initial fill with rock free material to a sufficient depth over the pipe to prevent damage.
(4w) Where flooding of the trench is done to consolidate the backfill, care shall be exercised to see that the pipe is not floated from its firm bearing on the trench bottom.
(cw) The provisions of
49 CFR 192.319(a) shall also apply to mains operating at less than 20% of the SMYS.
PSC 135.319 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
PSC 135.321
PSC 135.321 Installation of plastic pipe additions [49 CFR 192.321].
(fw) The casing pipe shall be reamed and cleaned to the extent necessary to remove any sharp edges, projections, or abrasive material which could damage the plastic during and after insertion. That portion of the plastic piping which spans disturbed earth shall be adequately protected by a bridging piece or other means from crushing or shearing from external loading or settling of backfill. Care shall be taken to prevent the plastic piping from bearing on the end of the casing.
(jw) Care shall be exercised to avoid rough handling of plastic pipe and tubing. It shall not be pushed or pulled over sharp projections, dropped or have other objects dropped upon it. Caution shall be taken to prevent kinking or buckling, and any kinks or buckles which occur shall be removed by cutting out as a cylinder.
(kw) Changes in direction of plastic piping may be made with bends, tees or elbows under the following limitations:
(1) Plastic pipe and tubing may be deflected to a radius not less than the minimum recommended by the manufacturer for the kind, type, grade, wall thickness and diameter of the particular plastic pipe or tubing used.
(2) The bends shall be free of buckles, cracks, or other evidence of damage.
(3) Changes in direction that cannot be made in accordance with 192.321 (kw) (1) shall be made with elbow-type fittings.
(4) Miter bends are not permitted.
(Lw) Plastic piping shall be laid on undisturbed or well compacted soil. If plastic piping is to be laid in soils which may damage it, the piping shall be protected by suitable rock free materials before back-filling is completed. Plastic piping shall not be supported by blocking. Well tamped earth or other continuous support shall be used.
PSC 135.321 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99;
CR 21-049; renum. 135.321 to (1), (2) and am. Register March 2022 No. 795, eff. 4-1-22.
(ew) Casing requirements of highway authorities shall be followed; however, construction type shall not be any less than provided by
49 CFR 192.323.
PSC 135.323 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
PSC 192.324w Rail Crossings. Whenever a steel pipeline is installed under a railroad track and a casing is not used, the operator shall install the pipeline using the methods prescribed in Gas Research Institute report number GRI-91/0285, entitled “Guidelines for Pipelines Crossing Railroads and Highways."
PSC 135.324 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(bw) No distribution main or transmission line shall be installed under buildings.
PSC 135.325 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
PSC 135.355
PSC 135.355 Customer meters and regulators: protection from damage additions [49 CFR 192.355].
(aw) Install a check valve or equivalent if any of the following apply:
(1) The utilization equipment might induce a back-pressure.
(2) The gas utilization equipment is connected to a source of oxygen or compressed air.
(3) Liquefied petroleum gas or other supplementary gas is used as standby and might flow back into the meter. A three-way valve installed to admit the standby supply and at the same time shut off the regular supply, can be substituted for a check valve if desired.
(4w) At locations where service regulators might be submerged during floods, either a special anti-flood type breather vent fitting shall be installed, or the vent line shall be extended above the height of the expected flood waters.
PSC 135.355 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(bw) Whenever gas is supplied to a theater, church, school, factory or other building where large numbers of persons assemble, an outside valve in such case will be required.
PSC 135.365 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(aw) When coated steel pipe is to be installed as a service line in a bore, care should be exercised to prevent damage to the coating during installation. For all installations to be made by boring, driving or similar methods or in a rocky type soil, the following practices or their equivalents shall be followed:
(1) When a service line is to installed by boring or driving and a coated steel pipe is to be used for the service line, the coated pipe may not be used as the bore pipe or drive pipe and left in the ground as part of the service line. Such installations shall be made by first making an oversize bore, removing the pipe used for boring and then inserting the coated pipe.
(2) Coated steel pipe may not be inserted through a bore in exceptionally rocky soil where there is a likelihood of damage to the coating resulting from the insertion.
PSC 135.371 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(cw) Plastic service lines that are not encased shall either be installed with an electrically conductive wire having adequate corrosion resistant characteristics or protection or some other acceptable means of readily locating the buried service pipe from the ground surface shall be provided.
PSC 135.375 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(aw) Copper service lines installed within a building may not be concealed.
(bw) Ferrous valves and fittings installed on underground copper service lines shall be protected from contact with the soil or insulated from the copper pipe.
PSC 135.377 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
PSC 135.457
PSC 135.457 External corrosion control: buried or submerged pipelines installed before August 1, 1971 addition [49 CFR 192.457]. After
49 CFR 192.457 (b), insert:
(cw) Notwithstanding the provisions of
49 CFR 192.457(b) regarding active corrosion, effectively coated steel distribution pipelines, except for those portions including services and short sections that because of their nature and installation make cathodic protection impractical and uneconomical, shall be cathodically protected along the entire area that is effectively coated in accordance with this subpart.
PSC 135.457 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99;
CR 21-049: am. Register March 2022 No. 795, eff. 4-1-22.
PSC 135.505
PSC 135.505 Strength test requirements for steel pipeline to operate at a hoop stress of 30 percent or more of SMYS addition [49 CFR 192.505]. After
49 CFR 192.505 (d), insert:
(ew) Except in freezing weather or when water is not available, pipelines or mains larger than 6 inches in diameter, installed in class locations 1, 2, or 3, shall be hydrostatically tested in place to at least 90% of the specified minimum yield strength.
PSC 135.505 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99;
CR 21-049: am. Register March 2022 No. 795, eff. 4-1-22.
(dw) Each segment of a service line, other than plastic, intended to be operated at a pressure between 0 and 1 p.s.i.g. shall be given a leak test at a pressure of not less than 50 p.s.i.g.
PSC 135.511 History
History: Cr.
Register, October, 1999, No. 526, eff. 11-1-99.
(cw) When street is paved or repaved. Whenever a road or street is paved or repaved with permanent pavement, the operator shall do all of the following:
(1) Check for leaks along all mains and services in the streets and abutting property with a continuous-sampling instrument capable of detecting combustible gas in air concentrations of 100 parts per million.
(2) Determine condition of pipe and joints by sample visual examination, where possible.
(3) Repair any leaks found.
