Tampa’s Manhole Covers Still Sealed After 10 Years

Case study · Municipal

In 2016 Rowland placed Perma-Patch® around City of Tampa manhole frames as a hold until permanent rehab was funded. Crews compacted and reopened the lane the same day. Ten years later the collars are still tight, the annulus is still sealed, and the permanent reset was never ordered.

10+years in service

2016year placed

0follow-up repairs

10Florida summers

City of Tampa crew member with a hand on a Perma-Patch collar placed in 2016, the surrounding lane cracked and the collar intact — A 2016 collar in an active Tampa travel lane. The pavement around it has cracked. The collar has not.

The problem: the collar fails before the budget arrives

Pavement around a manhole frame takes every wheel load twice, once on the approach and once coming off the lip. That ring ravels out before the rest of the lane shows any distress. Tampa had frames in that condition across the system and a rehab program that moves on a fiscal calendar instead of a pavement one. The interim options were an open annulus or a patch nobody expected to survive the year.

Wheel impact. Repeated loading at the frame lip breaks the ring down first.
Water. Once the annulus opens, runoff gets under the collar and undercuts it.
Schedule. A permanent frame reset needs funding, traffic control, and a crew, so it waits.

Rowland crew examining an open City of Tampa manhole with the cover set aside — Cover off, 2026. Checking what the collar did to the frame underneath.

Manhole cover and its repair collar sitting flush with the travel lane on a Tampa street — Flush with the lane. No lip to catch a plow blade or a tire.

Crew inspecting a 2016 manhole collar at the centerline of a Tampa street, cracking through the surrounding pavement — A frame at the centerline, where the loading is worst.

The fix

Rowland placed Perma-Patch cold, straight around the frames. No kettle, no tack coat, no cure window. Crews cleaned the loose material out of the annulus, placed, compacted, opened the lane, and moved to the next frame.

The material takes density from traffic instead of losing it. The same wheel loads that raveled the original ring tighten the patch. Tampa pulled covers on the same frames in 2026. The collars are intact, the joints are closed, and none of the treated frames has come back on a work order.

The permanent reset that was budgeted in 2016 was never ordered.

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Rowland crew inspecting a manhole repair on a residential Tampa street with the Rowland truck parked behind — Rowland on a residential street, checking a repair they placed a decade ago.

Crew member pointing into an open manhole frame while a probe is lowered down the chimney — The chimney below a treated frame.

Rowland crew talking through the inspection around an open City of Tampa manhole — Rowland walking the set.

2016 and 2026, the same frames

Condition on the treated set at placement and at the 2026 inspection.

Collar condition: Raveled, annulus open; Intact, joint closed
Planned service life: One season, interim; 10+ years and holding
Permanent frame reset: Budgeted; Never ordered
Return work orders: Recurring; None on the treated set
Lane closure: Staged for the reset; Open on completion
Placement equipment: Kettle, tack, cure window; None of it

Source: City of Tampa and Rowland site inspection, 2026. Placement date and scope reported by Rowland.

Who did the work

Rowland, an AllClear company, has worked Florida underground utility and sewer infrastructure for more than 37 years and is NASSCO certified. The 2016 placement and the 2026 inspection were both theirs.

Ten years in the same collars. No reset ever ordered.

Cold patch has a reputation as a stopgap, and that assumption is why the permanent reset went on the schedule in 2016. The collar is a compaction problem, not a temperature problem. Perma-Patch densifies under the same wheel loads that raveled the original ring, so the joint tightens instead of opening. The frames placed in 2016 were inspected in 2026 and have not been back on a work order. The gradation and performance data are in the submittal package.

Questions Tampa asked first

Does it need a tack coat or primer around the frame?

No. The material bonds to the vertical face of the frame and to the cut edge of the pavement without a tack coat. Crews clean the loose material out of the annulus, place, and compact. That is the whole sequence.

How long before the lane opens?

Immediately. There is no cure window, so the frame takes traffic as soon as the patch is compacted. On a lane Tampa could not hold closed, that is the reason the interim repair was worth doing at all.

Will Florida heat and standing water break the seal?

The treated frames have been through ten summers and ten wet seasons. The joints are still closed. The material does not soften into rutting at pavement temperature and it does not wash out of a wet annulus.

What did this cost against a permanent frame reset?

A fraction of it, and on this set the reset was never ordered. The money budgeted for those frames in 2016 stayed available for the rest of the system.

Can we specify this on our own manhole work?

Yes. The submittal package carries the gradation, the performance data, and the placement detail your engineer will ask for. Request it below and it comes as a single PDF.

Specifying manhole work this season?

The submittal package has the gradation, the performance data, and the placement detail for the frames on your list. One PDF, no call required.

Request submittal package