Gov’t moves to remove more than 100 road manhole covers

[Photo: Renato Marques]

The government has set up a working group to reduce the number of manhole covers on the city’s roads, with eight projects so far adopting measures expected to eliminate more than 100 covers, the Central District Community Service Consultative Committee heard on Thursday.

The committee held its 11th regular meeting of the year, at which it invited representatives from the Public Works Bureau (DSOP), Transport Bureau (DSAT), Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) and Post and Telecommunications Bureau (CTT) to brief members on progress.

The Northeast Avenue elevated walkway project, which is now undergoing sewer connections and road restoration, is expected to remove 94 covers alone.

According to the committee, Macau has more than 40,000 main utility covers on roads, installed by six pipeline operators – electricity, water, telecommunications, cable television and gas – plus another 40,000 drainage covers across the peninsula and islands. The concentration of buildings, narrow streets and complex legacy networks in older districts, together with recent efforts to address overhead cabling, have contributed to the current distribution of covers.

The working group has made reducing the number of covers a priority, urging operators to review nearby covers during construction works and merge, conceal or relocate those that are unnecessary or rarely used. Members stressed that the measures would not disrupt traffic during construction or expand project scopes, and that relevant public entities had completed preparatory work.

The entities assess covers based on their usage and past excavation needs, prioritizing the concealment of those that are rarely used. New Urban Zone A has already been built with pre-installed infrastructure, meaning future projects there will not require extensive excavation, although the need for additional pipelines cannot be entirely ruled out.