Flickr Pool: Big Bolts

Reader ghb624 found a few of these bolts in a storm-water drainage channel. At the time he wasn’t familiar with them but was intrigued by their shape and construction.  After a bit of searching on some forums he came upon what sounds like their probable function.

Those are restraining bolts for ductile iron water main installation.

The fittings have a flange drilled for bolts. The plain pipe end has
a field installed flange (the brand show is called a Mega-lug) the
field installed flange has teeth which bite into the plain end of the
pipe. The bolt heads on these teeth shear off when the proper torque
is reached.

The T-bolt looking things in the original post clamp the factory
flange on the fitting to the Mega-lug. The whole point is to resist
inertial forces from “blowing off” the fittings/hydrants/valves, etc.

Sounds good to us — after all, ghb624 found these in an area where such bolts might logically wind up.  You just never know what you’ll run into slogging through a drainage ditch.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]