County Road Easement Cleanup

[TheMan419]

A mini?

Our state highway department uses full sized Cat trackhoes with forestry heads. They'll close a lane along the interstate highways to allow room for them to work and fling debris.



But as far as power lines go, that picture shows the problem. They'll clear 20' either side of the power lines, but leave 60-80' trees beyond there. One good blow and they lose a lot of lines.

Yep. Our neighbors have a wooded area that goes right up to the road. The power lines are on the otherside of the road. Trees are tall enough that when they fall they take out the power line. Every time we have lost power at this house has been because of one of those trees.

 

[bcp]

...The contractors are usually very lazy and cut only a little so it will grow back in a year and need to be cut again. ...

A contract tree crew told me they can't cut more than 2 feet distance from the lines.

The power company crews (before contractors) did a great job.

Bruce

 

[Thomas]

Wish they would do same in our area.

 

[lman]

These are companies that PG&E subcontracts with. Yes, they come on my property with no notice. Then fell trees or chop other things up, and leave. They are required by PGE regulation to leave a tag with their company name and phone number, but often they do not. So you have no idea who to call. If you call PGE, that is a total bureaucratic run-around.

There are 33,000 miles of power transmission lines in CA, and PG&E owns most of them. If they are not properly maintained and cause a wildfire-- they are liable. So they must do maintenance.

On my property, I have the many inspectors and inspections, all of them separate from each other and they rarely communicate or coordinate. Annual inspectors, semi-annual inspectors (separate), "enhanced vegetation management" inspectors, pole inspectors, line and support arm inspectors, infrared camera inspector, and a helo sometimes flies overhead doing inspections as well.

So you have a power line running through your property? I would fence and gate your property. They can inspect your 2.5 acres from the neighbor's.

 

[RjCorazza]

Our County road crews are really good in my area. They did go overboard on the road easement in front of my neighbor's property a few years back... They cut trees and brush way into his property that he likes as a buffer. The crew actually came back and planted the trees of his choice as a buffer.

 

[plowhog]

I wish I could keep them out except with permission. But this particular property is roughly 100 acres with multiple entrances. None of which I can see from the main house. They just come on the property whenever they want.

They *do* have a legal right of way to maintain the power lines. But it's only a few feet to either side of the lines-- just a narrow strip through the property.

I can play hardball by not letting them have any access except their tiny narrow strip. Which is darned inconvenient on them. But they can respond by refusing to do any post-trimming cleanup, saying "we can't get our truck in here ...."

 

[ericm979]

The easements PG&E has lets them inspect and work on the power lines. You can't lock them out. They only cut trees (or more often, branches) that will affect the lines. It's not like the huge powerline ROWs you see for high tension stuff. I want them to do it, I just wish they did a better job of it.

 

[ericm979]

Anyhow to get back to the OP's topic, the county road crews here use a rotary cutter on a boom, mounted to a good sized tractor. It's pretty rough on the big trees. A lot of them have large scars where they got chewed up by the cutter. But it's a lot faster than hand crews.

 

[dodge man]

The county and township roads around here get a similar cutting, sort of a brush hog on a pretty good sized excavator but with wheels instead of tracks. They only do it when the trees really crowd the road. Any mowing that is done is by the landowners, which might be weekly, monthly, once a year or never depending on the owner.

 

[Diggin It]

Our county road department mows all county roads. They're mowing every day, all summer and move from road to road. They make each circuit about twice a year. They use two tractors with rotary cutters, one cutting close to the road and the other following behind reaching a few feet off the road. They also have a larger cutter on a boom for vertical brush cutting but only get around every two to three years.