In today's Daily News (NYC tabloid) there's an article about Con Ed inspecting many thousands of those ground level distribution panel covers and finding about a hundred with line voltage.
Article says voltages ranging from 50 to 120V.


The lower voltages likely imply leakage currents not enough to light a light bulb but enough to shock someone. Are these covers bonded to ground? Maybe those bonds went bad from salt corrosion?

It's kind of scary that so many covers have become energized, but at least ConEd has taken some action after all the recent incidents.

Has anyone ever seen a bonding jumper to handhole or manhole cover or its metal support ring? I never have.
Don

Well, before "Y2K", all of the manhole covers in the area of Times Square were welded shut as a safety precaution. Does that count?

Only if the metal ring that the covers are welded to is connected to the electrical bonding system.
Don