Final U.S. Transportation Dept. regulation aims to cut risks in lines that carry natural gas, carbon dioxide and other hazardous liquids.

Even as natural gas service will be restored by the end of the month to the thousands affected by September’s gas explosions in Massachusetts, safeguards to prevent similar explosions nationwide won’t be coming as quickly.

 The Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities selected Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems Inc. to analyze the gas state's entire gas distribution system. 

While 45-miles of natural gas pipeline affected by a Sept. 13 gas explosion will be replaced nearly three weeks early, the restoration of full gas service will be delayed by about a month.

The Massachusetts Dept. of Public Utilities will hire an independent firm to examine the commonwealth’s natural gas distribution system in the wake of massive gas explosions in three towns north of Boston.