Calgary soon to install artsy manhole covers

Calgarians will soon be walking, cycling and driving over much fancier manhole covers.

The city is installing new circular cast iron slabs that illustrate the various liquids washing through more than 12,000 kilometres of underground pipes.

For the $40,000 project, three artists were hired and each assigned to a different water system: storm, waste or drinking water.

Vancouver artist Jeff Kulak got the lucky assignment of wastewater — otherwise known as sewage.

"I was totally fine with it because I felt like it was a bit of a challenge," Kulak told the Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesday. "It's definitely something that's kind of a squishy topic."

Each year, the city replaces roughly 2,000 of its more than 200,000 manhole covers. The new designs will start being used next month.

"These have been in the works for the last two years, so we are finally at the stage where we are ready to have them unveiled to the public and go out in the streets," said Randy Niessen, who heads Calgary's public art program, in an interview with CBC News.

Niessen said that beginning in September, about 120 uniquely designed manhole covers will be beautifying city streets, mainly in the Eau Claire and island areas, with a public unveiling planned for mid-month.

"It will likely be in Eau Claire on the 15th," he said.

Kulak and the others, illustrator Mary Haasdyk of Calgary and London-dwelling, Calgary-born artist Andrea Williamson, started more than two years ago by learning about the water system from the engineers.

• Read more about the city's manhole art project

Kulak said he visited the foundry in Washington that made the iron for the cover, and Haasdyk said she read a book on the water treatment system's history.

"Just being able to contribute to the city that I live in and the community I'm a part of is really special," Haasdyk said.

Her artwork focused on drinking water and how closely connected Calgary is its water source. Her design shows water flowing from glaciers in the mountains into a drinking vessel.

Williamson's shows the Bow River winding its way through a poplar tree branch, as water flowing through storm drains comes back into the trees, according to the city's project website.

The artistic drain covers are unusual for Calgary but in fact have a dedicated following around the world. In Japan, considered a manhole cover art mecca, there's a trading card series documenting the various cover designs, Kulak said.

"They have some quite exquisite ones over there," he said. "It's a world I wasn't aware existed."

Each cover designed was made with safety in mind, Kulak said. The drawing is etched in to have a texture that works as grip, so people don't slip on sleek metal.

He said he understands the new covers will soon be installed in new subdivisions and in high pedestrian areas.

Calgary already has various drain covers with different designs, which might be noticed more now that you know where to look, said Niessen.

"We kind of initiated this in 2004. An artist named Gary Williams was commissioned to do chinook manhole covers for Calgary — which was pretty iconic. People really loved that."

It turns out that uniquely designed manhole covers have become a thing, not only in Japan, but also in cities around the world, said Niessen.

"It's actually kind of interesting going through this project because you learn about what other cities have done, and there are actually a lot of people out there who are fanatics about unique manhole cover designs," he said.

"We've had a few cities reach out to us after the call to artists went out. We got interest from Kelowna, Montreal [and] Richmond. I've seen a few designs for places like Sylvan Lake, Red Deer and other places in Alberta [that] have done unique ones as well."

(The city's Stampede Park has 50 unique manhole covers featuring Stampede icons, spread out across the grounds).

While the new manhole covers in Calgary feature intricate designs, they lack the colour that some of the more spectacular ones in Japan have.

Could there be a few splashes of colour added to Calgary manhole covers in coming months?

"Probably not to these designs, but there's always an opportunity to do this again in the future, so we could look at other possibilities," Niessen said.

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With files from Rachel Ward, Elizabeth Withey, Julie Debeljak and the Calgary Eyeopener.