Dominion Energy is expected to soon excavate under the site of an explosion near downtown Durham earlier this month as part of a state investigation into how a gas line was struck, precipitating a blast that killed one and injured two dozen.

During a press conference, Deputy City Manager Bo Ferguson said the city had received a request from Dominion to unearth a natural gas line on North Duke Street as part of an inquiry into the chain of events that led to the April 10 explosion. The city expected to sign off on that permit today, he said.

While the Durham Fire Department is investigating was sparked the explosion that leveled 115 North Duke Street and damaged fifteen other buildings, the North Carolina Utilities Commission is looking at how a gas line beneath Duke Street was ruptured, setting off the blast that killed sixty-one-year-old Kong Lee, who owned the Kaffeinate coffee shop that had occupied the first floor of the 115 North Duke Street.

City officials have said a contractor laying fiber cable struck the gas line, but the company responsible has not been identified.  Crown Castle, a communications infrastructure company, has said its subsidiary, Fiber Technologies Networks, hired the contractor that struck the line, but has declined to name the company. A company called PS Splicing both alerted 811 that it would be performing work in the area, and reported damage to the line. It’s CEO was severely injured in the blast, the News & Observer reported, but Don Smith reportedly was not doing the work himself.

Firefighters first responded to the area around 9:17 a.m. on April 10 after a 911 caller reported smelling gas. Firefighters found no evidence of gas and cleared the call. They were again called to the scene at about 9:37 a.m. when the contractor that hit the line reported the damage to 911.

Firefighters then evacuated Kaffeinate (about a dozen people were inside at the time) but a building next door that was heavily damaged was not evacuated. Durham Fire Chief Robert Zoldos said monitors used by firefighters in the building did not detect gas.

“Once we go into buildings we use monitors because your nose loses that ability pretty quickly on the scene,” Zoldos said. “So we use our monitors to determine where we do need to evacuate and we don’t and that’s how they based it that day.”

The explosion occurred around 10:07 a.m., while people were being evacuated from Kaffeinate.

On Monday morning, a portion of Duke Street around the site of the explosion remained blocked off, although most of the Brightleaf district was “open for business,” as Mayor Steve Schewel told reporters before enjoying lunch at Maverick’s Smokehouse & Taproom, which had served as a headquarters for firefighters the day of the and the day after the blast. Schewel encouraged Durham residents to support Brightleaf businesses that had suffered losses as a result of the explosion and ensuing road closures. (Several online fundraisers have also been established to help people impacted by the blast).

Two businesses, Saint James Seafood and Torero’s Mexican Restaurant, have been condemned. Matt Kelly, the chief at Saint James, told the INDY last week he hopes to re-open the restaurant in the same spot once the building is again up to code. There wasn’t a timeline Monday morning to re-open the closed portion of Duke Street.

City fire officials are still investigating what ignited the gas. Zoldos said the local fire marshal’s office had finished digging through the site, but still had additional interviews to conduct and needed to confer with state and federal officials before releasing its findings. Eight of nine injured firefighters have returned to work.