Reducing a manhole cover size?

[kgibbo]

Hi Everyone,

I have a query that I was hoping someone could help me with.

The missus and I are currently drawing up some plans for a driveway construction in our front garden. Looking from the road the garden slopes upwards towards the house. Our plan is to excavate a load of the soil and build a small retaining wall (approx 0.5m tall) around where the drive will be constructed and have a couple of steps at the back to get us up to the house.

Our problem is that there is a 600x450mm manhole in the path of one of the lengths of wall. My idea is to build the wall over the edge of this manhole and support with concrete lintels. Thus creating a smaller opening to the side of the wall, which we can cover with a smaller recessed tray, a 300x300 or 450x450 mm.

Can anyone provide some advice as to whether this is acceptable and safe?

Thanks in advance,

Karl.

[lutonlagerlout]

why do you need to reduce it?
if you are lintelling over leave enough room for a normal cover
better to move the wall TBH
LLL

[kgibbo]

The wall is (will be) a perimeter wall with the manhole cover (just) in the way, perpendicular to it.

The only direction we could move the wall would be further inside the boundary line. Not ideal for our plans.

So if we do lintel over we will be replacing with a standard cover, just smaller than the chamber size below.

Providing a decent strength lintel or two and no calculation cock-ups I think this could be goer.

[lutonlagerlout]

if you do lintel over you can use an L10 type lintel,which wont show,also leave it high enough to get access for rodding
seen plenty of lads leave the lintel 50mm above the cover (mention no names ben :;): )
cheers LLL