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Recessed Manhole Covers

It is a well known fact that Playground surfacing are designed to protect children, however sometimes within play areas you may come across a manhole that needs to be accessed for drainage. Recessed Manhole Covers come in a selection of sizes and as part of our package we can install recessed manhole covers that is infilled with safety surfacing.

In addition, surfaces such as resin bound gravel may also require recessed manhole covers that sit flat on the paving and provide easy and safe access to the man hole. Here is an image of one we installed to a resin surface within the UK:

As told by Wikipedia: “Manhole covers are often made out of cast iron, concrete or a combination of the two. This makes them inexpensive, strong, and heavy, usually weighing more than 50 KG (110lb). The weight helps to keep them in place, and makes it difficult for unauthorised people without suitable tools to remove them.”

Here at Soft Surfaces, we can ensure that our recessed manhole covers across all surfaces are:

  • Durable
  • Affordable
  • Effective
  • Secure
  • Safe

The cost of us installing these really does depend on many factors including the location of your surface, the surface type itself and the size of the cover that you’re looking for. It’s worth contacting us via our contact form if you are interested regarding the costs of these covers.

History of Manhole Covers

As soon as people began to live in cities the problem of what to do with human waste became an issue. The first cities were built along great rivers that served as open sewers. This was hardly satisfactory due to the periodic plagues that resulted from too much human waste in close contact with people.

Roman civil engineers solved this problem with the invention of the underground sewer. The Roman sewers, dug by hand and lined with brick, collected a city’s waste and deposited it far downstream. The Romans constructed access ways to these sewers to allow for periodic cleaning. The stone manhole covers that capped these access ways can still be seen in the old Roman City of Jerash in Jordan.

It would be quite a while until modern civilization rose to the level of the Romans. Construction began on the Chicago sewer system in 1856. New York City had only 200 mi (320 km) of sewer line laid by 1870, compared to 6,200 mi (10,000 km) today. The first manholes with covers were probably constructed in the early nineteenth century, not for sewers but for water or town gas pipelines. None of the covers for these manholes are known to survive to the present.

Contact us today!

If you have any queries about the specification of recessed manhole covers, or are interested in having a safety surface installed, then please free free to give our head office a call on 01625 445760

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