MUD also plans to devise a strategy to review project sites where gas lines have been replaced, Keep said, to ensure the old systems were properly abandoned.

Training to reinforce procedures, and reiterate resources already available, also has followed the muddled Old Market response.

Keep said the first utility workers should have heeded data accessible on laptops instead of a visual inspection that took them to the inactive line.

“We’ve had those discussions,” he said, but added that he understood how the mix-up happened.

The auto dispatch capability that should be in place this summer is expected to help curb human error as well, Keep said. He cited a 2011 gas leak south of downtown Omaha in which a dispatcher failed to act on a caller’s complaint of a gas odor near Sixth and Pierce Streets.

The Fire Department and MUD finally responded more than a day later, after a different person called 911. Nearby homes were evacuated; no injuries were reported.

The episode was one of a handful of cases since 2010 in which MUD was reprimanded by the fire marshal, according to the fire marshal’s records. No penalty was assessed because MUD admitted the error and agreed to remedies.