Noisy Manhole Cover

[YenWei]

Hi support,

We live on Kingsway. There's a manhole cover outside our window that started to make a lot of clunking noise again. On a rainy day, it's better but when the road is dry, it makes a clunking sound for almost every car that rolls on it. Telus has sent a team to fix it last November, but 5 months later, the cover is very noisy again. We hear it all day long and we have trouble falling asleep at night. It's been such a headache for not just our family, but a lot of the units who live closed to this manhole cover 😭

The technician who fixed it last year told us that due to the heavy traffic on Kingsway (thousands of cars daily, trucks and buses), this problem is likely to repeat itself. However, there's a chance they can relocate this manhole to a lane that's not so likely to get cars to roll on every time. I am reaching out to see if this is possible.

This manhole is located on East bound side of Kingsway, almost at the exact middle inbetween Gladstone and Nanaimo street, where the traffic lights are. Please note it's NOT the manhole outside of KFC, but the one outside of the Sunny Eye Care store on 2216 Kingsway.

Kindly respond to this threat so I know what the next action item is.

Thanks so much!

Best Regards,

Yen

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

This isn't the most direct way to report this issue. Short of calling Telus, the next more direct way is to go to https://www.telus.com/en/bc/outages and click on the green Report an Outage button in the top right. Then click on Report an Outage. Fill out the form and submit it.

There is also no manhole outside of Sunny Eye Care. The only one near there is in the intersection / traffic lights for the back alley / crosswalk east of that store. The KFC is a block away in the opposite direction.

Relocating the manhole isn't a realistic option. Cost would be too high. Kingsway likely has has a lot of lines under the road and moving those, and the manhole vault, would be a massive undertaking. It would cost a fortune, would likely impact service to your building, and I doubt the City would be happy about unnecessary construction on Kingsway.

[YenWei]

Hi @Nighthawk ,

Thank you so much for your prompt response, really appreciate it!

I will make sure to call, or submit the form to report this issue.

You are right about the location of the manhole. There are 2 manholes actually, and both of them are located at east of the Sunny Eye Care store (in the intersection / traffic lights for the back alley / crosswalk like you said). Both of the manholes are making noise:

- The big one. Sadly this manhole has been the bane of our existence since we moved into this unit 1.5 years ago. This is the one that almost every car in the middle lane rolls on it. And it was the one that was fixed last Nov.

- The small one. There's a smaller manhole cover in the same intersection. It makes a pretty big noise too every time a car drives on it. However, it's in a more 'friendly' location with the traffic lane so only about 10% of the cars would roll on it. In other words... we can live with it if it were the only one.

[YenWei]

I understand relocating a manhole will likely be very costly. However, is there a better way for this issue to be monitored as an alternative? For example,

- Is it possible to send a team every 3 months to tighten the lid, instead of relying on us reporting on this issue every 3 months? Due to the heavy traffic rolling on the manhole cover, 3 months is what I've observed for the big manhole to be from 'newly fixed and quiet' to 'start making a clunking noise' again.

- The engineer who came to fix the manhole cover, can they be a focal point? I have their number and I did message him, but I sadly didn't get a response. Is it possible to keep a channel open between me and a direct person who has the authority to send a maintenance team over, so I can report this issue in a more timely manner? 

Again, really appreciate your help in this one!

[TELUS_Support]

Your best bet would be the methods that Nighthawk mentioned, including the form to fill out which goes directly to our field team for investigation.