An Oak Grove man was killed in rural Madison Parish while working with a firm contracted to lay part of the 240-mile natural gas pipeline that is under construction by Gulf South Pipeline LP.

James Robert Chop, 20, no address available, was killed while operating machinery for Houston-based Associated Pipe Line Contractors at a work site about five miles south of Waverly, company spokesman Clyde Fowler said.

Details of how the accident happened and what type of machinery was involved are under investigation, Fowler said, adding that officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office were notified.

Sheriff’s officials said Chop was discovered by his father who works at the site, and a report on the incident was forthcoming.

The company is one of four hired to perform work on the East Texas to Mississippi Expansion Project, said project spokesman J. Kyle Stephens. Chop was one of about 300 contract workers who have worked at sites along the pipeline’s route.

Routes planned by the company during its federal licensing process show the transmission line beginning at a hub just south of Shreveport, La., and linking at one in Harrisville, Miss., in Simpson County.

Its route through Warren County showed it following utility-owned rights-of-way through southeast Vicksburg and exiting the county near Bovina. Construction on its local route continues in earnest, with crews and equipment visible daily on portions of U.S. 61 South, Fisher Ferry Road and Mississippi 27.