Took me 6 hours to fix a stuck knife valve on a sewer outfall job

I always thought I could wrestle with those big knife valves no problem. But last week on a sewer outfall inspection in Baltimore, I had one jammed halfway open and nothing I tried would budge it. After 4 hours of beating on it with a sledge and using a cheater bar, my tender suggested we just take the actuator off and check the gate itself. Sure enough, a chunk of concrete was wedged behind it, took me another 2 hours to chisel out. Has anyone else had a simple piece of debris eat up half your dive time?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_green824d ago

That "chunk of concrete" part really hit home for me. I've had the exact same thing happen on a stormwater outfall in Savannah except it was a busted up piece of rebar wedged sideways in the gate. It's wild how something that small can turn a quick job into an all day battle. I think the real takeaway here is that we get so focused on the actuator and the valve body that we forget to check the actual gate path first. You probably saved yourself a ton of frustration by taking that actuator off when you did. Sometimes the simplest fix is just looking at what's right in front of you instead of fighting the machine.

karen_hart1d ago

Gotta ask @holly_green82 did the rebar end up being from an old form tie or something random like that? I've pulled the wildest stuff out of those outfalls lol, it's never just a stick.