[Dreamtwister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Dreamtwister', 'W')ell your typical manhole cover is about 100 lb of iron. Scrap iron goes for around $0.40/lb.

[cube]

So long as government is still in tack I'm quite sure there's a way to stop this.
Look at all those other poorer countries for example.
In China J6P makes only $300 a month so the temptation to make $100 cash must be high but you never hear about thefts like this.
Maybe there's some law that says you'll die by ancient Chinese torture if you steal a manhole cover?

[Revi]

I think you will find that a lot of places have trouble with this. They stole a copper roof off of a church in Quebec. I think the age of scavenging has begun. Look around old civilization sites. No metal was left at all.

If you want manhole covers to stick around, you have to chain them down.

You can't rely on the basic goodness of people.

The scrap dealers should not take any manhole covers.

The price has cooled off a lot, so there's less temptation now.

[vtsnowedin]

Today a lot of new manhole covers are bolted down with five sided vandal proof bolts. They have a rubber seal under the cover to keep rainwater from infiltrating from the street into the system. I've also seen old covers tack welded down. It keeps them from rattling and keeps someone from poping a cover and dumping a load of septage or toxic waste into the system.
Scrap dealers tend to accumulate large piles of engines and other heavy castings waiting for the price to double for what ever reason. But most of the time the price is at a level to pay for the labor to collect it and load it plus the fuel to ship it to a steel mill. Back in 1986 I got six tons of rebar from a bridge for free as the F.O.B. price in Pittsburg that year would not cover the labor rates on the job for the crane and laborers to load it. Superintendant on the job was P.Od. that the extra profit he had made the year before was gone and wouldn't ship them any at a loss.
This year some of the locals have done quite well shipping their accumulated dead and down vehicles for scrap. One neighbor shipped twenty. $$

[letitburn84]

speaking of cast iron and bridges:

this is in the Boston area...

Cast Iron Trim stolen from bridge

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Hundreds of feet of decorative, cast-iron trim that was taken off the Longfellow Bridge during repairs to the structure was stolen from a labor yard.

Officials said that about 2,347 linear feet of trim that was being stored at the Stoneham Labor Yard was stolen sometime in the last three weeks. State officials planned to refurbish the trim and reattach it to the bridge.

"We at DCR are shocked and outraged by the disappearance of this historic metalwork, a unique feature of the Longfellow Bridge that we planned to restore along with the bridge," DCR Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said. "We take this extremely seriously. An investigation is under way by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office as a potential criminal matter. I urge anyone with information on this incident to come forward."

Officials are also reviewing other state labor yards to make sure that property in DCR's possession is secure.

Last year between Sept. 20 and Oct. 9, approximately 3,467 linear feet of the decorative parapet coping was removed from the outside edge of the bridge while repairs were under way.

Individual sections were removed from the bridge with a crane, loaded onto 10-wheel dump trucks and flatbed trucks, and transported to the state's Stoneham Labor Yard. Each section is 7 feet long, 2 feet wide, 3.8 inches thick, and weighs 350 pounds.

The sections were stacked neatly in piles of 13 or 14 sections each in a fenced-in corner of the yard. DCR staff members observed and documented the removal, transport, and storage operations.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', 'T')oday a lot of new manhole covers are bolted down with five sided vandal proof bolts. They have a rubber seal under the cover to keep rainwater from infiltrating from the street into the system. I've also seen old covers tack welded down. It keeps them from rattling and keeps someone from poping a cover and dumping a load of septage or toxic waste into the system.

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'H')ow long before folks start taking down ACTIVE power lines for the scrap metal value? There is a nice quick scenario to the power grid going down. LOL.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('yesplease', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'H')ow long before folks start taking down ACTIVE power lines for the scrap metal value? There is a nice quick scenario to the power grid going down. LOL.

[letitburn84]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', 'T')oday a lot of new manhole covers are bolted down with five sided vandal proof bolts. They have a rubber seal under the cover to keep rainwater from infiltrating from the street into the system. I've also seen old covers tack welded down. It keeps them from rattling and keeps someone from poping a cover and dumping a load of septage or toxic waste into the system.
Scrap dealers tend to accumulate large piles of engines and other heavy castings waiting for the price to double for what ever reason. But most of the time the price is at a level to pay for the labor to collect it and load it plus the fuel to ship it to a steel mill. Back in 1986 I got six tons of rebar from a bridge for free as the F.O.B. price in Pittsburg that year would not cover the labor rates on the job for the crane and laborers to load it. Superintendant on the job was P.Od. that the extra profit he had made the year before was gone and wouldn't ship them any at a loss.
This year some of the locals have done quite well shipping their accumulated dead and down vehicles for scrap. One neighbor shipped twenty. $$

[pedalling_faster]

there's a medium size church in San Francisco that has a gold leaf roof. that has got to present a tempting target, though it's hard to stay invisible when you're prying tiles off the roof of a church.

maybe somebody will get a gold-colored "bunny suit" - like those clean room suits Intel employees wear, except painted gold - to try & blend in.

then some elementary rope climbing skills, some look-outs up and down the street to keep an eye out for cops. somehow this sounds like the plot for a Pierce Brosnan movie.

[idiom]

Most tempting target/Movie plot has got to be that giant hunk of copper just sitting there in New York Harbour.

[bobaloo]

Around here there's lots of farmers with fields full of old non-working equipment and old logging equipment sitting around.

A buddy of mine has started going around and offering the owner 1/2 of the scrap value and he does the work of removing it and hauling it off to sell.

Last week he netted $8800. It won't keep up forever at that rate as there's not an infinite supply (peak scrap?), but he's making some damn good money for a lot of hard work. He's doing well because he's offering the owner a very fair price, not trying to lowball like most scrap dealers. If anyone's looking for work there's a good idea...

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'T')he scavengers will win here, inevitably. they will do whatever it takes to SURVIVE, and some will. Learn a lesson from them it might help you survive also.

[ReverseEngineer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'T')here is no good lesson to be learned from thieves. Your posts just keep getting scarier and scarier. How long before you start to rationalize cannibalism like that Anarky guy?

[Dreamtwister]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'T')here is no good lesson to be learned from thieves.

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'N')ope. Its Darwinian Selection, just like with the microbes. Sure, early scavengers who are dumb are going to get electrocuted, but they will die off and a hardier breed of scavengers will evolve that figure out how to depower the transmissio line before they take it down.

Just like we have MRSA that Penicillin won't touch, eventually we breed highly resistant scavengers also. Nature abhors a vacuum, and there is ALWAYS some creature able to adapt to an environment. The scavengers will win here, inevitably. they will do whatever it takes to SURVIVE, and some will. Learn a lesson from them it might help you survive also.

[KevO]

what people in the UK don't realise that rather than put out cans in your recycling box, you can simply take the cans to your local scrap yard and be paid.

Currently [s]idiots[/s] people in the UK involuntarily pay 'poll' tax aka council tax for which there are weekly household collections of glass, paper and cans. Householders have to sift and sort and clean these all unpaid. The council then sell these for big bucks to recycling (scrap) centres.
Regards cans, householders could just keep them, crush them and take them to the local scrap yard themselves and get the money rather than pay the council, in effect twice for doing so.
Some people are now going around ahead of the weekly collection lorry and filling vans with cans. It pays more than a 'proper' job and isn't illegal (yet)

[Ibon]

A guy here in Seattle has for years been getting free wood from the tree service companies and selling firewood. He is discontinuing this job as he is making more money delivering scrap iron to the consolidators here who ship it all too China. Down on the sound here in Seattle at the port you see the freighters coming in from China with the containers full of Wall Mart crap. THey go back loaded with scrap iron that is used to build their bridges and sky scrapers while our infrastructure is aging by the day. IT is more visceral when you actually see this all happening physically before you eyes compared to when you read about it.

I was born in 1958 and grew up just outside of Pittsburgh Pa. As a child I remember driving into the city at nights to see a base ball game at Forbes Field where Roberto Clemente and Willy Stargell where my personal heroes. Or a few years later seeing the Doors at a concert. The iron mills where still working back then and the drive in and out of the city took us through this hellish scene of glowing ovens and chimneys of smelted iron, trains loaded with coal. It all got cleaned up in the meantime but I did witness the tail end of that era.

[wisconsin_cur]

Radio Tower Stolen

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')INDBER, Pa. -- Police in Somerset County are trying to figure out how a radio tower went missing in Windber. Police say a group of people had a very thorough plan to get all 120 feet of steel and copper down from the old Windber radio tower.

Police believe the thieves threw cables over the guidelines of the tower and yanked it down with a truck. Police also found cut bolts and torch marks on nearby grass. Police say the tower had to be cut into small pieces in order to get it out of the wooded area, but they can't figure out how they did it without anybody noticing.

"There's probably a half a dozen routes that come in and out of that area. At least 20 four-wheelers and ATV riders go through there a day," said Paint Township Police Chief Rick Skiles.

The thieves also got away with a 300-pound Penelec transformer full of copper.