Long Beach officials announced plans to secure over 300 manhole covers around the city in an effort to better ensure public safety, according to a city press release on Tuesday.
Southern California Edison started attaching steel cables to each manhole cover Wednesday to secure them to the vault walls. The cables give the covers a traveling distance of only two feet, according to an article on Edison International.
The construction follows on the heels of explosions in the underground vaults on July 16 that blew some of the covers into the air and caused the injuries of two people. The incident was related to the power outages that swept the city, as well as three separate underground electrical fires.
“We think this is a prudent safety step in light of the rare incident in Long Beach…” SCE vice president of Distribution Business Line Greg Ferree said in the article. “We continue to investigate the cause of the outage and appreciate the public’s patience.”
Crews from SCE, accompanied by officers from the Long Beach Police Department, inspected all but four of the underground vaults last Friday, according to the statement. The four that went uninspected were inaccessible, but SCE said that they would be inspected as soon as possible.
Each manhole cover will take about three hours of work to tether, according to SCE. Crews plan to tether only during the daytime in residential areas and at night in commercial locations. Ocean Boulevard, Long Beach Boulevard, Pine Avenue and Pacific Avenue will be the main streets affected by the construction.
SCE announced that no work will be done from Friday to Sunday on the manhole covers, and that any unfinished manholes will be addressed early Monday. SCE expects to complete the work by Aug. 13 at the latest.