F*kn Landscapers

This summer (and last), I'm interning with a public works department who is building a data model of their storm drain system. A lot of data is missing for storm drain mainlines - mainly elevations. The logistics and purpose of gathering the information is a topic for another day.

In new construction, manholes are placed in sidewalks, roads, embankments, or other city rights of way. In the past, developers were allowed to place them anywhere within an easement - front yards, back yards, wherever. We've seen a 50 gallon drum full of water on top of a manhole, located a manhole under 3 feet of soil (we didn't excavate there) and seen manhole covers cemented shut.

Today took the cake. First, we located a manhole in an apartments dog run one foot below grade. During excavation of the foot of soil. We found a bunch of bags of dog poo in the excavated soil. It was a pain in the butt, we've probably pissed off the property owner, but we got the shot and restored access to the manhole. Do keep in mind that due to the nature of easements we could require the property owner to restore access to the manhole at their cost.

Then we went down the road a bit. The map said that the manhole was right next to a tree... We used super secret high tech equipment (ancient pinfinder and metal probe) to verify the manhole was there and started digging...







Wonder how angry of a call we'll get. I feel bad for the current property owners as they likely had no idea the manhole was there...

So you are saying that you find "manholes" for a living?

MikeFlynn74 said:

So you are saying that you find "manholes" for a living?

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And then probe them?

No. I'm saying I find manholes, stick my long rod in them, and see how well their pipes handle fluid.

Good... as long as it's nothing that could be taken out of context....

Some manholes are really tight. You've really got to pound them to get your rod in them. Some are loose. Some haven't had anything stuck in them for 20+ years. Sometimes it takes two to get the job done. Nothing like pounding really hard on a manhole. Sometimes people like to watch me pounding on a manhole or sticking my long rod in it.


It's gunna be a fuuuuun day. Of course, according to the postman we just stand in the shade all day (said on 105* day - he was in his AC'd mail truck and pissed that he ALMOST had to get out to put mail in the slot...).

Sound like the problems we had when I worked for a cable company, except we didn't have the government backing us up. Had one case where a person took a vault out with a backhoe so he could plant a tree. Knocked out 400 customers.

curtis97322 said:

Wonder how angry of a call we'll get. I feel bad for the current property owners as they likely had no idea the manhole was there...

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You mean people come home to a secret tunnel tug up in their yard and you get angry calls? That's freaking awesome!! I'd love to come home and find a tunnel dug up in my piece of crap front yard. It would give it some character. I'd keep the manhole cover in my garage and cover the hole with some type of net system to catch all sorts of characters to do my bidding on.

It's amazing how many clueless land owner there are out there.

What's a manhole?

Your manhole can be found behind your tree as shown above. Often the tree and manhole are surrounded by a bush.

As bad as that job seems it is with great pain I admit I use to have to go down in the manholes and do concrete work. *shudders*