Emergency services shut down the centre of Civic for much of yesterday after workers hit a gas line causing a potentially dangerous leak.
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The streets were expected to be re-opened, with buses running normally from 6am today.
The bus interchange - from the corner of Bunda and Mort streets to the corner of East Row and London Circuit, and out to the intersection of Northbourne Avenue and Alinga Street - was blocked off yesterday while ACT Fire and Rescue's HAZMAT team worked to clamp the leaking pipe.
All the shops lining the interchange were closed, and no unauthorised pedestrians, cars or buses were able to enter the area.
A team drilling to repair asphalt on bus platform 3, near the corner of East Row and Alinga Street, caused the leak when it hit the pipe at about 9.45am.
ACT Fire and Rescue's Commander Mark Phillips said the area had been immediately shut down after the incident and was then regularly monitored to ensure no further closures were necessary.
''We're quite fortunate today that we've got a bit of a gusty wind that's dissipating the gas pretty easily, we've got our atmospheric monitoring equipment at work, the guys are doing regular patrols of the whole area, ensuring we've got no build up or dangerous levels of gas at this stage,'' he said yesterday afternoon. A spokeswoman for TAMS said in the case of a gas leak, it was a standard precautionary response to create an exclusion zone around the affected area.
''Roads ACT carry out service checks prior to commencing any road maintenance work,'' she said.
''A service check was done prior to commencing work in the city. However, the gas line was closer to the surface than expected.''
No bus services were cancelled. Departure point were re-located in the area. ACTION Buses operations manager Les Gallagher said the crew had been doing a routine upgrade of the platform when it hit the line.
''With the weight of the buses the asphalt tends to deteriorate, so they do this about every 12 months,'' he said. Mr Gallagher said precautions meant ACTION had not been able to use their intercom system, relying instead on employees stationed at each intersection to redirect members of the public.
Commander Phillips said early yesterday afternoon that those working on restoring the platform had not been in any danger when they hit the line.
It took several hours to fix the leak as workers needed to dig through the road to expose the line and clamp it.
''[From the fire brigade] We've got two pumping appliances and a hazardous materials appliance on site, 12 personnel in all,'' Commander Phillips said.
