How to fix my screwup?

I was doing some landscape work and had an unfortunate encounter with the access cap for the municipal supply shutoff valve.

The city valve is 3' deep but there isn't a box/cover to access it. Instead, it has a 1.5" pipe with an iron cap attached to it. The cap is about 4" across and has a small 5-sided bolt which reveals a passthrough hole. Essentially, the pipe and cap were floating in the soil (solid clay) with the cap being about 6" below grade. Access to the valve is by removing the 5 sided bolt and feeding the T-wrench down the pipe to the valve.

First question - is this normal? The house was built in the early 80's.

Second question - how will the pipe be attached to the valve housing at the bottom? Is it threaded on like the cap is to the top end?

Third question - if said pipe were bent at a 30 degree angle about 12" from the top (the remainder is still straight thanks to the clay) and the cap forcibly removed by a small excavator, what is the best means to rectify the situation without having my wife divorce me over the costs? Should it be dug out, a new access pipe and cap installed? Or should the area around the valve be removed and an access basin/cover installed?

We don't have metered water so the line from the street into the house is my responsibility.

I know the simple answer is 'call a plumber' or 'call the city' but I'd like to know if this might be a simple fix that I can do myself.

Thanks in advance

Option 3

Or could I straighten the pipe and have the access cap welded back on?

cap

Well, that "pipe" is usually cast iron so it should have cracked off when you hit it. Depending on your area, it could be screwed to the valve, or just set over it with a "U" cutout saddle to hold it in place. And they usually only have one bolt, because when you need to access it, you usually have to do it as quickly as possible.

Curb Box

Sounds like you have what is called a curb box, you will have to dig down and see how much you damaged it, go to a utility supply and replace whatever is damaged, like other post said, should be cast iron, can't weld it.

Thanks!

Thanks for the info! I didn't know what to call the unit but a search of 'curb box' showed me what I needed to know.

I'll hit a utility supply store tomorrow and pick up a new assembly. Looks pretty straight forward to replace. My lesson here is to always visually verify and not trust what the drawing says...

Most places in the country offer a free service to mark utilities prior to doing any digging. All it takes is a phone call, and they then come out and flag/mark things so this doesn't happen.

I have a similar set up and the first thing my plumber told me when he could not remove the (blue) cap to turn my water supply off to replace my interior valves was call the water company.

They replaced the whole assembly and mine now stands at about 6 inches above grade.

I would call the water company/city. They might just come and replace it.

Service location

We've got a service that sends you the locations of buried electrical, gas and water with a single call which I used. I knew the water line entered under the dig but as I was going down 8" and the service was marked at 3', I thought I'd be fine. Turns out the shutoff valve wasn't under the access cover in the sidewalk at the entry line, but rather in a curb box buried 6" a few feet further in.

Thanks again for the advice. Off I go to dig it out. If I call the city, they may be more lenient on me if I've done the difficult part for them already.

Fixed!

Thanks once again for pointing me in the right direction. After many hours of digging through 30 year old clay, I got to the bottom and removed the old curb box. The rod in the middle was a little tough because the cotter pin was so corroded it wouldn't come out.

I was careful to disturb as little of the pipe bed as possible and removed nothing from underneath it and only a few inches around the valve for the saddle to sit. It all went together easily and is now at grade where it will be both visible and accessible.

Found out why it bent instead of breaking - the top adjustable shaft is steel and the bottom housing is cast. The steel part bent and the cap broke off.

Aside from my labor, total repair cost was $53. Lessons learned? Priceless.