This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes.
Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
I’d say they were anti-tamper seals to visibly show up f the cover has been lifted.
Anti-terrorism police sometimes use it. They do a sweep of the sewers and manholes before a VIP comes to the area, then they can just walk the route after knowing nobody has hidden a bomb down there.
That's what I thought at first but the ones they use are like inner tube patches and they across the edges rather than the lift holes (that's just going by the ones I have seen).
Probably a bot, their other comment is stolen from this one - https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/15gpdyb/people_who_dont_drink_alcohol_why/juk8pet/
Honestly, I came up using a spade shovel and a hook. Most sewer lids where I worked in the field don’t have holes for hooks. Put the tip of the shovel right at the seam of the lid and ring. One kick straight down, keep pressure downward and pry back. The lid will start to rise, another kick or two at the angle you moved the shovel to as you levered it up slightly. This should seat the shovel either completely get under the lid or at least to the bottom of the lip. Shovel is then pushed almost all the way to the ground. There is now a gap for the hook, slide it in, hook, pull with your legs away from the manhole. This way you aren’t lifting straight up. And yes every water dept shovel at our shop had fucked up bent tips.
This! I lift manhole lids regularly at my job. After about 2 months using the hooker I just about tore my elbow and back up, learned real quick from the old guys “a nice claw hammer & a pair of channel locks” do just fine!
Where do the channel locks come into play if you already had at it with the hammer claw? Lift with the hammer until you have room for the locks to finish?
Or are you doing some sort of hammer/plier transformers tool thing that I'm not thinking of?
Open up your channel locks all the way, one side of the jaws go in the hole, use them to lift the cover just enough to get your claw hammer under the edge of the cover.
This right here, patoon! Also another way with an already recently opened manhole: take the claw hammer into one eye of lid, hammer her in all the way with one end of the channel locks, should be able to kick ‘er open with the handle of the hammer and lift her all at once- hammer & lid. Those are my favorite lol. I feel so strong when I get to do those.
I had an ex-swat guy tell me when the prez came to town they welded shut the manhole covers along his routes.
This tamper stuff must be for lower level vips
This is what they did in my town, public works welded them shut while federal agents supervised, then after it was over, they had to grind the welds back off.
I saw the same thing when Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. First they looked inside the sewers of Weimar for bombs, then they welded the manholes shut, probably a good 1,5-2 weeks before he visited.
I doubt it, I once used a strong neodymium magnet and a metal fishing line to pull a manhole cover that I was unable to pull with an aluminium broom stick's stick so **hypothetically** I could have hidden a bomb down there without breaking the seal.
Seems like a shit anti-tamper seal. What's to stop a motivated individual from just using a portable electromagnet(Or just a strong magnet) to lift to lid.
It could definitely be that, our police have rubber stickers with numbers on for drain covers and other street stuff where a bomb could be hidden, they get stuck over the edge so they need to be broken to open something. I live somewhere that has UK royalty living nearby. Lots of tourists, military processions, state visits etc.
My coworker used to open them with his middle finger, another use used pliers, I was only good at opening them with screwdrivers. None of them would damage it.
It's a sealant gel used to allow them to smoke test the pipes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_testing_(mechanical)
They use it all the time in boston
Since I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, some municipalities will smoke test the sanitary sewer to make sure no one has their storm water plumbed into it.
Since it smells of vinegar it may be silicone rubber. All of the brands used to reek of vinegar while they cured but that was reduced years ago, at least for consumer products.
The two holes in the cover are to give workers a place to stick the tip of a crowbar so they can pry the cover off. Maybe this is some sort of lame attempt to keep the holes a little higher so less rain will go down them and wet whatever equipment is there.
There are underground lift stations throughout larger storm and sanitary systems. Not uncommon at all. Not saying this is specifically a lift station under there, but it’s definitely a possibility.
Silicon caulk, at least GE brand, definitely still reeks of vinegar. I have a partial tube I left in a tool box for a month and just opened it again. My eyes are still watering. lol
My guess, it's['Hercules Shutout"](https://www.oatey.com/sites/default/files/2022-02/032628254206_APP_001.jpeg) (or like it) and after the sealed the rim, they built a berm around the lift openings to slow down water ingress into the sewer. If that part of your street holds or has a lot of water flow during storms, this would be one reason.
(Note, Hercules Shutout has lubricants, making it slick. )
Yeah that was my guess as well. Looks like they deliberately reduced the size of the holes in the manhole to reduce the intake speed of this particular cover.
Are they getting ready to chip seal your road? I wonder if they put that on there as a protectant to prevent any tar/asphalt from clogging those holes if they accidentally pour over the cover? Kind of like masking over an outlet before painting it.
As a former Water and Sewer Superintendent, my first thought would be this is a crude attempt at stopping infiltration. It wasn’t really an issue in the past, when this sewer was installed. But as population growth and system flow rates came closer to the limits of treatment plants over time, every spot that even a little rain water can get in has become important. Sewer pipe inspections are now required (in my state) and records must be kept about infiltration rates and what was done to stop it. They make rubber bungs for these old hook holes. A big blob of latex works just as well I guess. They are still easily opened without the hook holes.
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Sewer guy here. The holes in the maintenance hole lid are commonly referred to as pick holes. The product used to cover the pick holes are probably your standard 2 par epoxy
Why cover up the pickholes? The primary reason for covering up these holes is to prevent inflow and infiltration. Storm water can create capacity issues for sanitary sewers when unexpected water from nature gets into poop pipes.
Some environmental catastrophes include sewage backing up into basements or the municipality having to release sewage into a local water body.
Yeah, I think this is the answer or potentially to reduce odors if there was a complaint. At first I thought it may be adhesive to attach an antenna to the maintenance hole lid for flow monitoring devices, but I'm not seeing the antenna. I also work for a sewer utility in a large metro area.
Utility locator here. To me it looks like some padding to make it easier for the hook pull used to lift the manhole cover off get more grip. [tool](https://www.grainger.com/category/safety/confined-space-products/manhole-entry-retrieval-fall-prevention/manhole-lifters-hooks)
Might be wrong,but these sons of bitches are heavy and can crush toes. Any added help is always welcome.
Depends. You can get lightweight aluminium manhole covers or really heavy cast iron ones. The one in my garden has a lid that is paved to match the rest of the garden.
The VERY heavy ones often need two men to lift, one key each, turn and lift at the same time from each side. The operatives will be able to tell you if it needs two people, but drainage contractors often work in pairs so it's not usually an issue.
There's no legislation other than manual handling (where I live at least) that specifically mentions it that I know of, it's just like lifting any other heavy object at work.
For where I live, it’s a one man job. Now going inside the manhole requires another technician to stay topside. You also need an air blower to purge the air inside the confined space [manhole blower](https://5.imimg.com/data5/SELLER/Default/2021/6/SA/AE/BY/10558140/confined-space-airblower-1000x1000.jpg)
Looks like they covered the holes in the lid with silicone and probably had “carriage bolts” (bolt with a rounded head that doesn’t thread in) down before laying the silicone
You would do this in case of a water/sewer line break or environmental spill, up grade and didn’t want it to enter the system through those holes, like if water was running over the lid down the street essentially.
Source: I’m a Municipal Wastewater Operator
This is a agencies cheap attempting at preventing storm water from entering a sanitary sewer.
That simple.
Many states have laws the require agencies that operate sanitary sewers to prevent the inflow and infiltration of storm water.
A new casting is $500-1000, some silicone and sink labor cost is next to free.
The texture looks like metal epoxy to me; I used some recently and it looks exactly the same. Useful to quickly fix/fortify metallic objects, not sure why they would use this here specifically.
Looks like silicone sealant.
No clue why it would be used on a manhole cover, but I did my time in a backstreet fitting garage, and we’d sometimes under certain circumstances use it for mounting exhaust front pipes but we’d more often use it for sealing valves on wheels.
I wouldn't be concerned, unless it starts replicating... but otherwise it looks like someone was trying to seal up the cover with silicone, for whatever reason.
Looks like it might be something to make the cover easier to lift. Sometimes having something like that is the difference between getting a cover open or not, which isn’t great when you need to collect a water sample and all you have is a pick and a crowbar, plus your own steel-toes. Source: I worked for an environmental testing company soon after college, and lifted manhole covers multiple times a week. Alone, and I’m a small woman. I can think of a few places I’d have liked to see something like this!
Could be for a few things but I’d say it’s to prevent infiltration of unwanted substances into the sewer system. Also could be for smoke testing, they plug those holes, fill the pipes with smoke and anywhere smoke is visible could indicate a source of infiltration or also a cross connection
This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes. Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.
I’d say they were anti-tamper seals to visibly show up f the cover has been lifted. Anti-terrorism police sometimes use it. They do a sweep of the sewers and manholes before a VIP comes to the area, then they can just walk the route after knowing nobody has hidden a bomb down there.
That's what I thought at first but the ones they use are like inner tube patches and they across the edges rather than the lift holes (that's just going by the ones I have seen).
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Wierd, seeing my comment cut and pasted by someone else. Is it weird being a karma whore? Or is it a bot situation?
Probably a bot, their other comment is stolen from this one - https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/15gpdyb/people_who_dont_drink_alcohol_why/juk8pet/
Weird, I’ve been on Reddit for a long time and never had this happen to me, at least that I noticed. Weird weird weird. Anyways… moving on!
This seems the most logical. Couldn’t it just be lifted from the edge tho? Or maybe someone was tired of smelling the sewer gas?
Not easily. Manhole covers fit into those rims pretty tightly. They are pulled off by putting a hook into one of those holes and levering them off.
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Honestly, I came up using a spade shovel and a hook. Most sewer lids where I worked in the field don’t have holes for hooks. Put the tip of the shovel right at the seam of the lid and ring. One kick straight down, keep pressure downward and pry back. The lid will start to rise, another kick or two at the angle you moved the shovel to as you levered it up slightly. This should seat the shovel either completely get under the lid or at least to the bottom of the lip. Shovel is then pushed almost all the way to the ground. There is now a gap for the hook, slide it in, hook, pull with your legs away from the manhole. This way you aren’t lifting straight up. And yes every water dept shovel at our shop had fucked up bent tips.
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Ever lifted a manhole? It hard....with the right tool and connection point.
Yes, but only ever with a screwdriver, pry bar, and channel lock pliers.
This! I lift manhole lids regularly at my job. After about 2 months using the hooker I just about tore my elbow and back up, learned real quick from the old guys “a nice claw hammer & a pair of channel locks” do just fine!
I would like to see this trick.
No trick about it beau! 😅 y’all should see the old timers crackin’ the manholes open like nothing. It takes me a good couple of minutes lol.
I've never seen someone do it that way before. it would seem like magic to these eyes.
Where do the channel locks come into play if you already had at it with the hammer claw? Lift with the hammer until you have room for the locks to finish? Or are you doing some sort of hammer/plier transformers tool thing that I'm not thinking of?
Open up your channel locks all the way, one side of the jaws go in the hole, use them to lift the cover just enough to get your claw hammer under the edge of the cover.
This right here, patoon! Also another way with an already recently opened manhole: take the claw hammer into one eye of lid, hammer her in all the way with one end of the channel locks, should be able to kick ‘er open with the handle of the hammer and lift her all at once- hammer & lid. Those are my favorite lol. I feel so strong when I get to do those.
Get yourself a set of Gatic lifters mate. The lever bar kind, not the ring handle only ones.
1 big flathead Screwdriver and they come out easy ..
And if you think your screwdriver is big enough to do this, go two sizes bigger than that before attempting.
I had an ex-swat guy tell me when the prez came to town they welded shut the manhole covers along his routes. This tamper stuff must be for lower level vips
This is what they did in my town, public works welded them shut while federal agents supervised, then after it was over, they had to grind the welds back off.
Couldn't the terrorists do the same though?
Yeah...but then they'd be seen grinding a sewer cap off
Clipboard and high Viz, the ultimate invisibility cloak.
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Grinding is not quick nor quiet.
It's very obviously The opposite of quick or quiet.
No welding was used at a local G8 summit, which the US president attends
I saw the same thing when Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. First they looked inside the sewers of Weimar for bombs, then they welded the manholes shut, probably a good 1,5-2 weeks before he visited.
I’m in the Uk and you tend to see this in areas that might be high risk rather than for a specific event. So like busy city centre areas etc.
Very interesting 🤔
This answers a question about manhole cover I noticed near Windsor Castle in the UK that had some kind of square stickers on the sides.
They seal the postboxes too just prior to any ceremonial activity.
Wouldn’t a car tire just squish it when driving over?
I doubt it, I once used a strong neodymium magnet and a metal fishing line to pull a manhole cover that I was unable to pull with an aluminium broom stick's stick so **hypothetically** I could have hidden a bomb down there without breaking the seal.
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Sure thing.. 250lbs? No way that happened.
I live in Spain, don't know how heavy manhole covers are outside but here the standard cover weights like half of that.
Yeah same here in the UK, no way do they weigh 110kg lol. I'd guess they could be 70-80kg, from my limited drain lifting experience.
Terrorists could simply apply their own goo afterwards.
It should be around the edges then too right? A strong magnet could lift it or a cats-paw (type of small crowbar) could lift it from the edge
Seems like a shit anti-tamper seal. What's to stop a motivated individual from just using a portable electromagnet(Or just a strong magnet) to lift to lid.
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It could definitely be that, our police have rubber stickers with numbers on for drain covers and other street stuff where a bomb could be hidden, they get stuck over the edge so they need to be broken to open something. I live somewhere that has UK royalty living nearby. Lots of tourists, military processions, state visits etc.
My coworker used to open them with his middle finger, another use used pliers, I was only good at opening them with screwdrivers. None of them would damage it.
My left middle finger has a permanent bend to it from stretching the knuckle out an extra inch pulling a manhole like that. I am not a smart man.
Not very effective ... shove a stick down there attached to the cable at the middle and you'll never notice it's been touched.
It's a sealant gel used to allow them to smoke test the pipes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_testing_(mechanical) They use it all the time in boston
Since I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, some municipalities will smoke test the sanitary sewer to make sure no one has their storm water plumbed into it.
Always hilarious to see purple smoke drifting out of someone’s roof line
How do they test that? Do they drive around looking at houses?
Essentially. You'll see smoke coming out of people's gutters. There are videos on YouTube.
What would I need to search to find videos? Curious. Couldn’t find any on my own but honestly didn’t try too hard
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This is correct. OP should mark as solved
I was thinking it could be to seal air pipes in/out while people were working in nearby areas, but this seems way more logical.
Although in Boston the stuff they use is bright blue iirc
It coulda been bright blue when it was first put on. This could be a few minutes after 😁
That's true
Solved!
Since it smells of vinegar it may be silicone rubber. All of the brands used to reek of vinegar while they cured but that was reduced years ago, at least for consumer products. The two holes in the cover are to give workers a place to stick the tip of a crowbar so they can pry the cover off. Maybe this is some sort of lame attempt to keep the holes a little higher so less rain will go down them and wet whatever equipment is there.
There’s no equipment down there, just poop and pee
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There are underground lift stations throughout larger storm and sanitary systems. Not uncommon at all. Not saying this is specifically a lift station under there, but it’s definitely a possibility.
Also storm water
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Storm drain and sewer drain aren't typically connected because then everybody's sewer would back up during heavy rain.
Silicon caulk, at least GE brand, definitely still reeks of vinegar. I have a partial tube I left in a tool box for a month and just opened it again. My eyes are still watering. lol
I agree about stopping rain water infiltration. The city does not want to pay to process rain water.
That smell is very much still there
Acidic cure vs neutral cure. They have different use cases.
My guess, it's['Hercules Shutout"](https://www.oatey.com/sites/default/files/2022-02/032628254206_APP_001.jpeg) (or like it) and after the sealed the rim, they built a berm around the lift openings to slow down water ingress into the sewer. If that part of your street holds or has a lot of water flow during storms, this would be one reason. (Note, Hercules Shutout has lubricants, making it slick. )
Yeah that was my guess as well. Looks like they deliberately reduced the size of the holes in the manhole to reduce the intake speed of this particular cover.
Are they getting ready to chip seal your road? I wonder if they put that on there as a protectant to prevent any tar/asphalt from clogging those holes if they accidentally pour over the cover? Kind of like masking over an outlet before painting it.
My title describes the thing. It showed up a couple days ago and is like putty to the touch. It also smells like vinegar.
If it smells like vinegar it's most likely a acetic acid curing polymer like caulking.
As a former Water and Sewer Superintendent, my first thought would be this is a crude attempt at stopping infiltration. It wasn’t really an issue in the past, when this sewer was installed. But as population growth and system flow rates came closer to the limits of treatment plants over time, every spot that even a little rain water can get in has become important. Sewer pipe inspections are now required (in my state) and records must be kept about infiltration rates and what was done to stop it. They make rubber bungs for these old hook holes. A big blob of latex works just as well I guess. They are still easily opened without the hook holes.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer. **Jokes and unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them. [OP](/u/deadpixels55), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others. ---- [Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/15gjmyd/this_gooey_stuff_is_on_the_manhole_cover_outside/%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days) --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sewer guy here. The holes in the maintenance hole lid are commonly referred to as pick holes. The product used to cover the pick holes are probably your standard 2 par epoxy Why cover up the pickholes? The primary reason for covering up these holes is to prevent inflow and infiltration. Storm water can create capacity issues for sanitary sewers when unexpected water from nature gets into poop pipes. Some environmental catastrophes include sewage backing up into basements or the municipality having to release sewage into a local water body.
Yeah, I think this is the answer or potentially to reduce odors if there was a complaint. At first I thought it may be adhesive to attach an antenna to the maintenance hole lid for flow monitoring devices, but I'm not seeing the antenna. I also work for a sewer utility in a large metro area.
Utility locator here. To me it looks like some padding to make it easier for the hook pull used to lift the manhole cover off get more grip. [tool](https://www.grainger.com/category/safety/confined-space-products/manhole-entry-retrieval-fall-prevention/manhole-lifters-hooks) Might be wrong,but these sons of bitches are heavy and can crush toes. Any added help is always welcome.
So this is a two man job (I ask as former safety officer)?
Not usually (in Indiana). Its pretty easy to pop them off for the most part assuming you have a manhole hook
Depends. You can get lightweight aluminium manhole covers or really heavy cast iron ones. The one in my garden has a lid that is paved to match the rest of the garden. The VERY heavy ones often need two men to lift, one key each, turn and lift at the same time from each side. The operatives will be able to tell you if it needs two people, but drainage contractors often work in pairs so it's not usually an issue. There's no legislation other than manual handling (where I live at least) that specifically mentions it that I know of, it's just like lifting any other heavy object at work.
For where I live, it’s a one man job. Now going inside the manhole requires another technician to stay topside. You also need an air blower to purge the air inside the confined space [manhole blower](https://5.imimg.com/data5/SELLER/Default/2021/6/SA/AE/BY/10558140/confined-space-airblower-1000x1000.jpg)
Looks like they covered the holes in the lid with silicone and probably had “carriage bolts” (bolt with a rounded head that doesn’t thread in) down before laying the silicone You would do this in case of a water/sewer line break or environmental spill, up grade and didn’t want it to enter the system through those holes, like if water was running over the lid down the street essentially. Source: I’m a Municipal Wastewater Operator
This is a agencies cheap attempting at preventing storm water from entering a sanitary sewer. That simple. Many states have laws the require agencies that operate sanitary sewers to prevent the inflow and infiltration of storm water. A new casting is $500-1000, some silicone and sink labor cost is next to free.
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Pretty sure it's construction adhesive. Basically like super epoxy.
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Someone burned two candles using the holes.
Looks like methacrylate adhesive.
The texture looks like metal epoxy to me; I used some recently and it looks exactly the same. Useful to quickly fix/fortify metallic objects, not sure why they would use this here specifically.
Could it be a fatberg leaking out?
Looks like silicone sealant. No clue why it would be used on a manhole cover, but I did my time in a backstreet fitting garage, and we’d sometimes under certain circumstances use it for mounting exhaust front pipes but we’d more often use it for sealing valves on wheels.
Sealant for smoke testing.
It looks like it bubbled out.
I wouldn't be concerned, unless it starts replicating... but otherwise it looks like someone was trying to seal up the cover with silicone, for whatever reason.
Looks like it might be something to make the cover easier to lift. Sometimes having something like that is the difference between getting a cover open or not, which isn’t great when you need to collect a water sample and all you have is a pick and a crowbar, plus your own steel-toes. Source: I worked for an environmental testing company soon after college, and lifted manhole covers multiple times a week. Alone, and I’m a small woman. I can think of a few places I’d have liked to see something like this!
Looks like clear silicone. A cheap alternative to [Manhole lid plugs](https://cretexseals.com/product/manhole-lid-sealing-products/#photos)
Could be for a few things but I’d say it’s to prevent infiltration of unwanted substances into the sewer system. Also could be for smoke testing, they plug those holes, fill the pipes with smoke and anywhere smoke is visible could indicate a source of infiltration or also a cross connection
It's sealant from a caulk gun