Maintenance hole connection seal

A method for establishing a seal between an incoming pipe and a hole in a maintenance hole collection tank, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a connection seal in the form of a ring-shaped elastomeric body which will constitute a primary sealing structure for the seal, the ring-shaped elastomeric body having a resilient circumferential tension region located at an approximate mid-point of the ring-shaped elastomeric body which tension region joins a pair of oppositely arranged, pipe aligning cone regions on a bottom circumferential surface of the ring-shaped elastomeric body, the pipe aligning cone regions each terminating in an outer circumferential lip region at an outer extent thereof, the outer circumferential lip regions extending outwardly at an acute angle with respect to the bottom circumferential surface of the ring-shaped elastomeric body;
• wherein the outer circumferential lip regions are each connected by a valley region to an inwardly extending rocker-type element on an upper circumferential surface of the ring-shaped elastomeric body, the inwardly extending rocker-type elements forming an obtuse angle with respect to the pair of oppositely arranged grabbing handles, wherein the inwardly extending rocker-type elements are configured to be separated to define a lodging space, wherein the lodging space is configured to receive a variable thickness wall of the collection tank between the inwardly extending rocker-type elements, the variable thickness wall having respective flat interior and exterior surfaces, and wherein the inwardly extending rocker-type elements are configured to seal against the respective flat interior and exterior surfaces of the variable thickness tank wall.