Manhole Covers | Circular and Semi Circular covers from DutcoTennant

Walking through the neighborhood pavement, and your boot suddenly makes a metallic noise. You look down and see a manhole cover. Chances are good that you’re looking at a circular or semi circular cover from DutcoTennant. We have thousands, if not millions of our products spread across the country!

City streets are often adorned with manhole covers. Image courtesy: pexels

What They Are

Acting as a safe portal to the underground, manhole covers are extremely important parts of the infrastructure. They act as entry or exit to sewer lines, waterways, power conduits or communication lines, service entrances to underground tunnels, and so on. They are placed in the path where people may walk or drive on them; so, they are very strong and can bear great weight. 

Manhole covers are generally unlocked but can be locked to prevent unauthorized entry to private lines as well. They come in all shapes or sizes, but circular and semi-circular covers are the most common in the industry.

Next time you are taking a walk on the pavement, look down to find a manhole cover and notice the design. You will see that the cover surface is textured to provide grip so that people don’t slip on the smooth metal surface. This anti-skid design can come in any form — checkers, box stripes, dots, or even custom patterns in case of private area installations.

Also, there will often be some sort of text on the metal manhole cover. This is generally done to notify the user or onlooker about what that cover leads into — like, “Sewer Line Cover” or “Rainwater Tunnel” etc. But we can do any kind of text with any design. What’s more, for private installations we can print your city or company logo onto the manhole cover as well!

How Do They Work

Manhole covers are generally circular, the most common variety. This is because of geometry — a round shape fits the best in a rounded opening, but the same cannot always hold true for other shapes like squares or rectangles. 

For this reason, a manhole cover will never fall through its frame (unless the force acting upon it is so great that the whole structure collapses; in which case it’s a moot point anyway). Not to mention, it is easiest to dig a round hole too. Also, it is easier to move a circular manhole cover since it can be just rolled away like a wheel.

Semicircular covers exist as well for particular types of installations where that kind of shape is required (for example, a manhole right up against a wall). They are not as convenient but serve their purpose where they are needed very well indeed.

As mentioned above, a manhole cover rests on the frame seat which, obviously, needs to be smaller than the cover itself. The whole shebang (the cover and the frame seat) is made of thick, strong cast iron, and thus is quite heavy — often over a hundred pounds.

The reason why manhole covers are made of such strong material is that they often are placed right in the road, and thus need to bear the weight (and momentum) of vehicles at various speeds. This downward and sideways force can be great — imagine a concrete truck hurtling at over 40 mph and the kind of force it exerts on the road via its wheels. All circular or semi circuler covers need to be strong enough to withstand that kind of force.

Why Choose Our Circular and Semi Circular Covers

Here at DutcoTennant, we understand exactly what you need as your underground infrastructure portals; and rest assured that we will cover all the bases. We have B125, C250, D400, F900 types of circular manhole covers and the D400 type semicircular cover. We can make them hinged or bolted as you wish, and we can make the surface look just the way you want, and we can make them vented or solid as needed too!

Call DutcoTennant today at +9714-2152799 for the best circular and semi circular covers for your city’s or facility’s underground opening needs. We deliver the best quality of product sustained by a robust customer support service.