Summerside inventor creates frost-resistant manhole cover
25-year-old inventor already working with City of Summerside
As paving crews work in the summer heat, a young inventor in Summerside, P.E.I., is working on a new device that could keep roads in better shape when the snow starts to fall.
Nathan Kember has invented what he calls a "self-adjusting manhole cover."
The innovation is this: the lid of the manhole moves when winter frost causes asphalt in roadways to heave.
Kember said the device reduces cracks in asphalt and helps prevent potholes from forming.
'Something that's not supposed to move'
"There's not a worse condition for moisture and frost in a manhole cover, because you get heat coming up from the bottom, from the earth and from the sewer," he said.
"It's just not a good situation for something that's not supposed to move."
Kember was introduced to the problem by someone he knows, who thought a solution to the manhole problem could really help people.
"He said if anybody could figure it out, it would be a nice invention, and I thought it wasn't too hard, so I decided to tackle it."
Kember is now working with engineers at the University of Prince Edward Island to test the device.
Already installed in Summerside
The City of Summerside has installed three of Kember's manholes in its roadways in recent years. City officials said the device could help improve local roads as well as the local economy.
"It's a product that we have use of in the city," said Aaron MacDonald, the director of technical services for the City of Summerside.
"It would be an opportunity for someone to grow a product that could be tried and tested here in Summerside, but it would be used everywhere throughout the world," he said.
While the testing with UPEI will continue for one more winter, Kember said, he intends to begin marketing the manhole cover right away.
Device already patented in Canada and the U.S.
He patented the device in the U.S. and Canada three years ago, when he was just 22 years old. He said he hopes his invention inspires other young entrepreneurs on P.E.I.
"If I can be an encouragement to younger youth, help them, coach them, push them along, I'm totally open to that."
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