Colonial Pipeline announced Saturday it is beginning construction of a temporary pipeline that will bypass a leaking section of its main gasoline pipeline in Shelby County, Alabama.

No timetable was given as to when that bypass line would be completed or what path it would take.

"This plan has been reviewed by all appropriate federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)," read a posting on Colonial's spill response web site.

As much as 336,000 gallons of gasoline is estimated to have spilled from the 36-inch pipeline since Sept. 9, when a leak was discovered by an inspector for the Alabama Surface Mining Commission who was performing a routine check at an inactive coal mine.

The leaking pipeline has been shut down since Sept. 9, and is a major part of the gasoline distribution system in the United States. The pipeline carries about 1.3 million barrels of gasoline per day from refineries in Houston to distribution centers in the Southeast and Eastern U.S., from Alabama to Atlanta to New York. Some estimates have said 40 percent of the gasoline used on the East Coast comes through this pipeline.

The outage has caused gasoline price increases and shortages in north Alabama and Tennessee.

According to its web site, Colonial is by volume the largest pipeline operator in the country and delivers more than 100 million gallons of refined products each day to markets between Houston and New York City, serving more than 50 million people.