Is no one else going to talk about how weird it is to see a square manhole cover? Now there's a risk of dropping the cover down the hole due to the shape.
Setting square tiles or paving stones around a circular cover is a pain in the ass.
But it wouldn't be the first time the US is weird, like the whole imperial measurements thing, so whatever. Or maybe you live in a state that decided square manhole covers were biblically incorrect.
I see small square junction box things like this all the time in California. Mostly in-between where two homes' lawns meet. The one I had in my lawn before I moved to an apartment sucked because it was slightly raised from the grass and was in an awkward position to try and get the mower around.
For a while in the programming world "why are manhole covers round?" was a common question to be asked in interviews. I had no fucking clue the first time I was asked, but subsequently I would put on my deep pondering face and reason through it out loud and arrive at the correct answer, which never failed to impress the interviewer. After a few years I started owning up to the fact that I (and everyone else) had already heard that question.
Manhole covers are not heavy as fuck. They're meant to be able to lift out. I've lifted far larger ones than this no problem.
This manhole cover is at most 30x30cm judging by OP's foot, so weights at most a few kilos.
This is a small cover, probably covering a drain, not a hole to the centre of the earth. I have a few around the house. Cable tie, piece of string, lift it out no problem. You lift and slide it aside, it's not going to fall in unless you're a complete moron or drunk. If it does fall in, you pull it out, because it doesn't weigh 100 kg.
If you're worried that this would take your finger off, you're the kind of person who should hire an electrician to change a light bulb.
Someone deffo turned it after it was already put down to get this
The line looks like it'd fit if the square was rotated, so that means someone picked up the cover and either intentionally or unintentionally put it back down with the line going in the other directions instead of back in line with how it was painted
Common sense is way too much for people. I too think it’s likely for someone to have placed it incorrectly so that a glance they would know if they had already accessed what was inside.
I am genuinely confused if people are down voting because they want to believe it was painted wrong or if they think what I said was so obvious that it's stupid to write it out