There was a gas leak Wednesday morning near the McClelland Park building on Fourth Street and Park Avenue.

Southwest Gas responded to the scene after receiving a calling around 9:35 a.m. The University of Arizona Police Department and the Tucson Fire Department were there to assist. Gas was shut off at 10:10 a.m.

A UAPD officer near Jett’s Wildcat directed traffic away from Park Avenue. Portions of Park Avenue and Fourth Street were barricaded off until about 10:20 a.m. when Park Avenue was reopened. Fourth Street access from Park Avenue remained closed until about 3 p.m. while Southwest Gas worked to repair the line. “”We’re not evacuating (any buildings),”” said Capt. Trish Tracy, a TFD spokesperson.

“”We were doing maintenance on a valve and in the process, the valve broke,”” said Libby Howell, a Southwest Gas spokesperson. “”It was blowing gas so we dropped back and squeezed off the gas line on either side of the valve.””

Howell compared the process to bending a straw. She said a section of line was weakened and replaced. 

“”It was a pretty routine incident,”” she said. “”It is a fuel, so if it were to ignite we’d have a problem. It’s lighter than air so whenever you have a leak or a broken line it tries to dissipate to the atmosphere, it tries to rise. So in this case if people in the area were hearing a sound it’s because that line was under pressure. In a sense, this incident is less dangerous than an undiscovered leak because we know where the gas is, we can deal with it.””