The light rail transit (LRT) system in Minneapolis, Minnesota is being constructed in response to the need to ease freeway congestion and move more people. To prepare the gas distribution piping for detection, monitoring and control of any stray current that might occur, the gas company has isolated the piping and installed various testing and measurement facilities. Stray current provisions include buried permanent reference electrodes in strategic locations, current measuring hoops on the piping to detect magnitude and direction of current, special piping construction for pipe crossing the tracks in the downtown area and judicious use of electrical isolating joints in various lines. Baseline surveys and future testing programs are being developed. This paper describes the LRT system and the preparations being made on the gas distribution piping.
Keywords: programs current measuring hoops, gas distribution piping, light rail transit, stray current, testing