By Northern Nevada Business Weekly

New technology, federal tax breaks and lower construction costs combined to spur efforts by Southwest Gas to replace miles of vintage plastic pipe in its system at Lake Tahoe this year.

The Las Vegas-based utility is using two new technologies — “keyhole” and “split and pull” — in the Tahoe-area project.

With the keyhole technology, a 24-inch diameter piece of asphalt is cut to access the natural gas pipeline below the ground.

This eliminates the need to remove longer sections of roadway to replace older lines.

When the work is done, the keyhole of asphalt is replaced, using a durable adhesive.

The “split and pull” technology, meanwhile, splits the old pipe while pulling a new carrier pipe at the same time.

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