Manhole covers

[ace of the base]

I don't know if this topic has been covered before but one thing that really gets my back up (in more ways than one) is badly set manhole covers in the middle of the road.
Far too often when a road is resurfaced the manhole cover and surround are left below the new road surface - effectively producing a new pothole.
How can councils (who presumably inspect the finished work) allow this to pass even the most basic standards?
.........goes off ranting stage left.......

[anonymous-user]

There is a road near me that is just like that. It has a line of manhole covers down it that are just where you want to position your nearside wheels. You either have to skim the kerb or drive in the middle of the road to avoid them.

[PartOfTheProblem]

It isn't acceptable is the only answer. I'm a Highway Engineer and would never sign off a job where the iron works aren't set flush.

Ideally iron works shoudn't be in the wheel tracks anyway, but that's another issue.

[AlexRS2782]

There's a few round my way where one of utility companies decided that it's easier to leave them standing proud above the tarmac by a good inch, instead of setting them flush. A few of them sometimes get a small layer of tarmac against the ironwork so a tyre wont catch it, but most are just the metal frame

I can only assume they thought if they set them higher, it will give them twice as long before they require repair / replacement.

However this is in the same Surrey Council area who themselves are refusing to do anything about the horrendous road surfaces caused by 3 years worth of extra traffic from regular diversions down various routes including the A30 because of the nightly M3 closures. Evidently they'll only look at repairing the numerous potholes, etc, once the closures and works are completed fully which may be later this year or 2018 - which is funny because they're claiming that the M3 Smart motorway works are now complete

I've now managed to memorise most parts of the A30 with all the areas where you need to weave left, right, go straight, etc, to avoid the various potholes, sinkholes, fissures, ironwork, etc

Edited by AlexRS2782 on Friday 21st July 17:56

[Sheepshanks]

Must admit I was a bit gobsmacked when all the roads in our village were surface dressed and then every grid and manhole was dug out (with a considerable border) and reset.

It took about 5 minutes to do the surface dressing and a couple of weeks to reset all the ironwork. There's so little difference in height it's hard to imagine it made any difference and it made a right mess of the appearance of the road surface. I'm sure the tarmac they put around the ironwork will break up at the first sign of frost.

[Mr GrimNasty]

Most of the problems I see are when they are sunken & loose after being smashed into submission by enormous HGVs and general very heavy traffic.

At least nicking them overnight seems to be on the wane.

Can make early morning drives interesting.