Manhole Maintenance: A Fall Prep Checklist

Fall brings a lot of things. Pumpkin Spice (if you’re into that), Halloween, and leaf collection. Because Fall tends to be a slower time of the year, it also provides the opportunity to get manhole system maintenance work done.

Consider this fall prep checklist:

• Check the sanitary sewer manholes in your collection system to determine if there are inflow or infiltration issues to deal with.
• Execute manhole inspections.
• Perform the work identified during these inspections, for example, rebuilding deteriorated manhole grade rings, or installing some manhole chimney seals or barrel joint seals.
• Clear leaves and debris away from storm sewer inlets and look for potential issues surrounding them.
• Deteriorated grade rings below the drainage grate may be ready to collapse, so take a look while you are there and identify any defects that can be corrected before there is a major failure with pavement collapse.

If these maintenance items have been put off, the Fall season is a great time to try to get caught up.