Gasoline Leak Stops Work on MTA Subway Tunnel

A Metro Rail subway construction firm halted work in a tunnel under Vermont Avenue for 36 hours this week after laborers discovered a small leak of gasoline, the county’s transit agency reported Thursday.

Workers first noticed a strong scent of gasoline Monday afternoon while patching cracks in a section of the tunnel near Melrose Avenue, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.

The next day, workers found gasoline dripping into the easternmost of two Red Line tunnels just north of a station under construction at Beverly Boulevard, he said. Workers left the site until MTA and state safety officials could decide on a course of action.

MTA project manager Stephen J. Polechronis said agency environmental experts determined that the gasoline had probably settled into the dirt above the tunnel from the buried tanks of a nearby service station.

A state Division of Occupational Health and Safety official said the agency issued a so-called yellow tag at the tunnel, prohibiting entrance by any workers not there to patch the leak.