What are these?

**fareastsider** · May-10-10, 01:16 AM

What are these? I see them all over the city.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=...224.98,,1,5.81

Chuck_MI · May-10-10, 01:37 AM

Originally Posted by fareastsider

What are these? I see them all over the city.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=...224.98,,1,5.81

Vents they are called.

**reddog289** · May-10-10, 01:43 AM

got them in the burbs too

**Meddle** · May-10-10, 02:34 AM

I don't see anything special on that map.

**canuck** · May-10-10, 08:14 AM

I think that they are gas vents installed to ventilate gases from industrial contamination below the surface. Here is a similar device in an industrial park in Montreal where I work occasionaly at a film studio. The contaminated soil dates back to a time when locomotive engine repair shops nearby would empty diesel [[an estimated 4 to 8 million liters) and a cocktail of chems like pcb's now leaking into the river. They are planting willows and collecting residue on the shore with dinky equipment. They are also building a hospital near a railroad yard that was decontaminated recently.

DC48080 · May-10-10, 08:17 AM

Those are sewer vents. You can sometimes smell the stench coming from them as you walk past.

**EastsideAl** · May-10-10, 08:21 AM

Exactly. They are vents for the sewer system. Common in any older large sewer system with long runs to the outlets. Prevents dangerous gas buildup. There was one next to the street a couple of doors down from where I grew up.

**MikeM** · May-10-10, 08:56 AM

They are vents for underground vaults holding natural gas line junctions or valves. Most used to be painted blue before MichCon was aquired by Detroit Edison.