Natural gas was shut off Tuesday morning to 150 Lawrence customers after a construction crew damaged a pipeline at Sixth and Arizona streets.

The gas shutoff caused some restaurants in the area to close because their cooking stoves and fryers were gas-operated. Runza Restaurant, 3418 W. Sixth St., was closed from the time the incident occurred at 9:30 a.m. until about 1 p.m., manager Steve Prososki said.

“I turned away a lot of customers,” he said. “I stood outside to let them know.”

An assistant manager at Sonic Drive-In, 3201 W. Sixth St., declined to comment, but others who were in the area said it also was closed for a period.

Employees at Kaspar’s Bar & Grill, 3115 W. Sixth St., improvised and were able to serve lunch. They served cold sandwiches and heated taco meat in a crock pot, bartender Amber Nickel said.

“We made do,” she said. “The customers were glad we were open because so many other restaurants were closed.”

Aquila, the natural gas utility, sent crews to the area to repair the 2-inch gas line and relight pilot lights for affected customers, media spokesman George Minter said.

Minter said the company’s gas lines are marked, but it was unclear how the accident happened.

“Right now we’re concerned with getting service back to the customers,” he said.

That process was supposed to be completed sometime Tuesday night.

LRM was the contractor working on a street-widening project, city officials said.

Aquila serves about 30,000 customers in the Lawrence area.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical was called to the area and monitored the air, but no traces of gas were registered by its equipment, Deputy Chief Mark Bradford said.