eli5 why are manhole covers in the middle of the road and not on the sidewalk?
In: 622
Manholes and valve boxes are located directly above the pipes that they access. As others have mentioned, there are often multiple utilities running parallel with each other down the road. Many municipalities require certain separations between different utilities (for example a water line may need to be 3 or more feet from a sewer line). This is to protect against contamination in the event of a pipe leaking/breaking and to allow room to work around them.
Another big consideration is repair cost. Pipes need to be repaired, and replacing a bit of asphalt in the road is a lot cheaper than replacing concrete sidewalk.
As an example a current project I’m working on has a storm drain line, waterline, recycled waterline, gravity sewer line, force main sewer line (pumped sewage to get it uphill), gas line, fiber optic conduit, and underground electric. These all have to run down the road with different separation requirements from each other.
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