Disclaimer: Before any work is done I'm going to have all utility companies come out to properly mark the utility locations.
I'm looking to get a fence installed by a fence company. However, in order to do that, I need to cut down 3 trees that are in the way. My concern is utilities being located anywhere along the fence line. I don't want to cut down the trees and then find out there's utility lines around the area I want the fence and won't be able to put up a fence. Basically, if I can't put up the fence, I'd rather leave the trees.
From what I understand, the utility companies want you to wait until a few days before the project begins for you to call them out to mark the utilities. It's probably going to be a month or 2 between now and when I can have the trees cut down and when I can have the fence company begin.
Other than having the utility companies come out, mark up the utilities, cut down the trees, have them mark the utilities again, and then put up the fence, is there any way I can get a general idea of where the utilities may be? One of the bigger concerns is my neighbors have some sort of utility box in their back yard, and I'm not sure if that's a bad sign.
Any recommendations on how to handle this given the order of operations I need to follow would be helpful.
Green lines mark the fence boundry.
Red is the utility box I'm referring to.
Best Answer
Utilities, as a rule, are delighted to come out any time and mark locations. They would much rather avoid a problem instead of having to deal with an outage.
If they need to come out again, e.g. because the paint weathers away, they'll do that.