LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. – A road construction mishap in Lehigh County causes a natural gas leak.

It happened this morning when a line was hit at Tilghman Street and Route 309.

Tilghman was closed, some businesses shut down, and one elementary school dismissed early.

Right now, a temporary repair is in place. But tonight, there will be some disruptions while permanent repairs are done.

A gas leak Tuesday morning prompted the power to be shut off along this stretch of west Tilghman street in Lehigh County. This left some businesses closed for the day, and some customers hungry.

“I came here to eat just came here from Philly thought I’ll just get on the road and eat when I get off the road but low and behold,” says Bruce Sheftel, Allentown.

The outage lasted a little over an hour.

“We had to turn customers away and let them know that there’s a safety risk, gas line, plus the traffic is bad so not a good time to come around,” says Binder Tal, Manager of Epoch IT.

According to UGI, a contractor doing roadwork hit a line and caused the leak. Power was turned off and crews made temporary repairs. Gas was shut off around 12:30 p.m., and the road reopened around 1:15 p.m.

“Everything was shut down. Refrigerators, our machine that we cut all the meat on, the register, everything was off so we really couldn’t do anything for the whole time,” says Nicola Assante, Staff, Assante Italian Market.

Assante Italian Market is no stranger to working around roadwork

The shop opened in November of 2024, and has been feeling the effects of the construction since it started earlier this year.

“Our numbers have drastically changed since the construction started so it’s been discouraging a little bit but the customers that have been pretty much coming in all the time. They’ve become like family already even in our first year, they’ve been keeping us going so,” says Assante.

No injuries were reported.

According to UGI, about 29 customers in this area will not have gas service tonight through early tomorrow morning as crews make permanent repairs to the damaged line.