Local News

Eversource to replace 6,000 Boston manhole covers with new, safe models

The project comes after multiple manhole explosions injured three people in the Boston area.

August 27, 2022

1 minute to read

Manhole covers will be safer in Boston thanks to a new effort by Eversource, which aims to enhance the safety of the underground electric system across the city.

Eversource told WCVB that new latching manhole covers will increase safety by replacing about 6,000 manhole covers in the city by the end of 2023.

“The manhole cover unseats itself, comes up and there’s potential to injure people and injure property,” Craig Hallstrom, president of Electric Operations at Eversource, told the news outlet. “When you think about manhole incidents in general, they can happen anywhere, but downtown Boston has the highest risk profile.”

In June, manhole explosions shattered windows and evacuated buildings in downtown Boston. One person was sent to the hospital in that early-morning incident. A month later, in July, an exploding manhole cover injured two workers in Beacon Hill.

Hallstrom told WCVB that the goal is to keep the city’s manhole covers in place. The covers weigh about 200 pounds and can travel 15 feet in the air. But the newer energy-release manhole models will lift slightly — about 3 to 4 inches — then drop back in place.

According to Eversource, the goal is also to increase the cycle of inspections and prevent manhole explosions from happening in the first place.

“We get in the manholes very routinely, we do inspections, we have some new technology, some new equipment,” Hallstrom told the outlet.