Telephone Poles

[gusg]

I bought three acres about a year ago that has some telephone poles in bad places. All of the poles (except for the pole with the transformer that goes to my house) have been there for many years before the property was split. My property has a pole that is a junction that goes four ways. One goes to a pole a 120' from the house but is centered exactly in the middle with underground utilities to my house. The other three ways go to the side neighbors and the neighbor behind me. My problem is with the wires that go out the back of the property.

Since the property slopes up in the back, the telephone wires (lowest wires) are 12 feet off the ground. Detroit Edison said that the code is 16 feet if you are going to be operating a tractor or riding a horse under them. Detroit Edison won't do anything because their lines are much higher and fine but they said that they have had instances where Ameritech has had to relocate poles for this reason. I have not contacted Ameritech yet.

My wife will be riding a horse under these wires and her head will be up there a ways. Has anyone else had experience with this type of thing? It is cost prohibitive for me to pay to have the poles moved. If I can find a picture I will post it as a reply to this message. Thanks.

 

[beenthere]

I assume you are talking utility poles, that also carry the telephone cable. Seems the best place for the telephone lines are underground, and am surprised the telephone co. doesn't get them there on their own. But apparently not yet.

Solution I would consider is to have an 'accident' with the loader, where the low lines are caught and pulled down (minor outage of phone service), and the phone co. then gets an order to repair, replace at the correct height of 16', or they bury the lines when they are there. Going to be hard to have the 'accident' if you have already contacted them first. Twelve feet is high enough to get under with a horse (or is this a jumper?), and most equipment, and there is low voltage so not a danger for electrocution.

Good luck with your decision to contact Ameritech (they can be pretty lazy except when the neighbors are without telephone service) first with or without an emergency.

 

[manganos]

I work for Verizon so maybe I can help. It will probably take a couple of steps to get the lines higher. You should first call out for a service tech letting them know the lines are low. They should contact thier supervisor. Contact your local phone company after that and ask to speak to a supervisor. Tell the supervisor about the problem and get a date to have it corrected by. If they will not work with you, contact your local office that handles utility complaints. Here in Virginia it is the State Corp. Commison. Butts pucker when you hear that name. You may be able to have the lines buried but you will be responsible for the cost of the burying of the lines. Approach it like that and you shouldn't have a problem. If you do email me at vamangano@yahoo.com and I'll try to help you move via email!

 

[gusg]

Here are some pictures.

 

[gusg]

here is another view........I am posting these for Gusg (his wife here) and I guess you can only do one at a time?

 

[gusg]

ok last one!

 

[Fly_Rodr]

<font color=red>Solution I would consider is to have an 'accident' with the loader, where the low lines are caught and pulled down (minor outage of phone service)</font color=red>

I sure hope no one would need to dial 911 during this process. I think I would just call Ameritech Repair (be sure to get name or number of rep), advise them that it does not meet specs and may cause injury by it being to low, move up the ladder if you don't get results.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Since you work for Verizon, I'll ask you this one. I have poles running up along my drive that appear to only have phone lines on them yet one has a transformer for electrical so I could be wrong.

Anyhow, here's my question. Who owns and is responsible for these poles? Of course, I'm asking because these are pretty old and may need to be replaced in the not too distant future and would really love hearing it won't be on my dime. What's the story?

 

[Steelfan]

I may also be able to help you a bit here. I built a house about 15 years ago with PP&L, and Bell of Pa telling me that all lines were going to be moved to the roadside. Last Year I decided I wanted to put a roof on my deck, and the lines were still not move. I could reach out from my deck, and touch the Phone Line. Main trunk for the area was right in my backyard. So I called Bell of Pa, and they sent a man down. The man told me, that he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He called someone, and the next day the lines were raised, and I was told very soon the lines would be along the road. I hope you understand that sometimes things do slip through the cracks. I think your best option is to call around, and see what can be done. I hope I added something to help you. Good Luck Kent

 

[TimSullivan]

After looking at your pictures, it sure would be nice to remove the poles and bury all the wires. Even a ground transformer could be hidden behind bushes. I just buried eight hundred feet of electric and telephone and it cost me $2000 to the electric company, zero for the phone line and $800 for the trench. It sure improved the view.