Patent ID: 7330625

Claim:
An underground mounting fixture for mounting a piece of telecommunications equipment within a vault, the vault defining a closed bottom end positioned underground, an open top end accessible from street level, and a sidewall extending between the bottom end and the top end, the sidewall defining an upper peripheral edge of the open top end, the vault defining an opening for feeding cable into the vault, the mounting fixture comprising: a frame structure configured to be mounted to the upper edge of the open end of the vault; a can structure including a closed end, an open end, and a sidewall extending between the closed end and the open end, the can structure being mounted to the frame structure and the vault, the can structure receiving the piece of telecommunications equipment; and a cover including a top end and a skirt portion extending downwardly from the top end, the skirt portion being slidably received within the can structure, the skirt portion sized to fit around the piece of telecommunications equipment within the can structure and sized to fit within the sidewall of the can structure, the top end of the cover forming a water tight seal with the top end of the can structure, wherein the skirt portion defines a vertical downwardly extending wall that fits between at least a portion of the telecommunications equipment and the sidewall of the can structure, wherein the skirt portion is configured to trap air within the can structure between at least a portion of the telecommunications equipment and the skirt portion to protect at least a portion of the telecommunications equipment from water damage if the water tight seal between the cover and the can structure were to fail.