Moving a power pole in S.E Melb ?

[Justin]

Has anybody here had a power pole moved, or know someone who has ? We are looking at moving our driveway as part of building a new house on our block, and the power pole is in the way. We need it moved 2.2 metres.

Would love to hear about anyone else's experience with regards to process, effort and cost.


Cheers,


Justin.

[Gumby]

one word.

Expensive

[ozwinner]

one word.

Expensive

It could be 2 words.
Espensive but.

Al

[Gra]

It could be 2 words.
Espensive but.

Al

I would have thought the two words would have been b%^&*y expensive

[Justin]

More than one or two words would be helpful

How expensive - less than ten grand or more ? How much more or less ? Quoted by power company at fixed price, or an estimate, or simply time and materials ?

We'd be back at square one if this wasn't do-able, the whole house plan would have to be changed, and it's been agony getting my spatially-challenged SWMBO to understand and agree upon the current plans:eek:

Justin.

[Gumby]

Don't mean to be rude here but why not just ring them and find out ?

My only input is having to deal with them on a construction of 2 new units behind an old house recently. Just trying to decide whether the old house would have underground power or whether the existing over head line would remain was enough for me. I mean, talk about an easy decision made hard ! It went on for months with all the buck passing and nobody wanting to make a decision. "Oh, you need Mr Blah Blah and he's on leave".

I couldn't begin to imagine trying to get a pole shifted. Surely it's the long way around.

[ian]

More than one or two words would be helpful

How expensive - less than ten grand or more ? How much more or less ? Quoted by power company at fixed price, or an estimate, or simply time and materials ?

We'd be back at square one if this wasn't do-able, the whole house plan would have to be changed, and it's been agony getting my spatially-challenged SWMBO to understand and agree upon the current plans:eek:

Justin.

Justin

I have no idea and I'm in Sydney

BUT the light pole (underground power) outside my place was replaced on Saturday. This was the scale of the exercise

• 2 sparkies in a truck to disconnect and reconnect the power
• crane truck and driver
• tipper and driver with new pole
• 3 man work crew and truck
• another work crew at a later date to install the light

The whole job took about 2 hours but the access was tricky because the pole was in the middle of a garden bed and surrounded by trees

You can figure on two visits from the crane truck + pole truck at say 4hrs each (one to install the new pole, the second to remove the old one)
Unless the existing pole is near new add on the cost of buying a new one
Three visits from the linies (one to protect the wires, the second to connect the new pole and disconnect the old, the third to remove the line protection after the old pole is removed)
Typically the linies would try and reuse the existing house wires

Timing??
probably once summer is over as the crews are probably rostered 6 months in advance

Given the marginal cost I'd get the power placed underground as well


ian

[Justin]

Thanks, I am intending to call tomorrow (called today prior to my original post but enquiries line was closed for the day). It may not be the long way round if we have to factor in redesign of moving garage to the north side - thus blocking out light, not being able to build on the boundary if that's the case and having to squeeze the width another 1.5m on top of what we've already done on the existing design.

I'd love to hear about anyone else that's done this, and will update this thread with my experiences once I've gotten a bit further.

Cheers,


Justin.

[GraemeCook]

We had a pole that was very close to our driveway which was a nuisance most of the time and a real pain whenever I tried to back the trailer in.

After grazing the pole with the trailer, I rang the power company and was told that the pole was nearing the end of its life, would be replaced in about two years "...and I will make a note."

Three years later along they came, put in a new pole about five feet from the old pole and took the old one away.

No harm in talking to them.

Cheers

Graeme

[Tools]

The cost will also be dependant upon what is on the pole. We had to have the arms offset on a pole to get them away from a balcony on a new development.It was high voltage,and it cost THOUSANDS.

Tools

[Justin]

Well, a bit of an adventure today on the phone......

Rang the so called energy company today, and got a clueless curry muncher call center rep. Obviously my question wasn't on the list of scripted responses, so he kept putting me on hold as I patiently explained my request. Ended up telling me to fax my request in with an explanatory diagram. They "would pass this on to the distributor, who would respond in 2-3 weeks, maybe 1, blah blah blah"

Bugger that, so I found out who the distributor was, rang them, and got put on to a project planner. A very knowledgeable aussie bloke, who told me that my pole wasn't high voltage, and that they would provide me with an estimate which would have a credit applied depending upon the age of the pole (older pole = more discount). He said not to quote him, but the average cost for such a move is in the 5 to 7 k mark, excluding work on other connections like Telstra. Of course don't hold my breath until I get it in writing.

He'll give me some Telstra contact details after I email him the request and a couple of pics. I hope Telstra aren't going to be a show stopper on this...


Justin.

[thatirwinfella]

that'd be right with high voltage. heaps of training and gear required for that work.

have a look a the pole out the front... 4 wires shouldn't be too much, anything will probably cost considerably more as more people wll b neccessitated and more widespread power outages and people will be required.


rather than have a double width driveway to the road, how about tapering it to your driveway, which could be double width.


you may find that the cost of this excersise puts this into the pipedream catergory, behind gym memberships, backpacking holidays and careers changes.

[Justin]

A bit more progress on this. Got contact details for Telstra and Optus. Hopefully Optus aren't going to be involved but need to notify them regardless. Emailed Telstra tonight, will fax Optus tomorrow, then it's sit back and wait for the quotes to roll in. Fingers crossed........


Cheers,


Justin.