I have been required by the Oregon Dept. of Transportation to relocate the Verizon phone pole near my driveway because it intterferes with my northbound sight distance and creates a safety problem when leaving my driveway onto a state highway. The driveway has been there 40 years or more, the pole has been there for less than 5 years and was installed when a previous owner built the house, which was completed in 2007.
Verizon wants $840 nonrefundable just to give me a cost estimate to move the pole, which will likely cost a couple thousand more. Meanwhile, I'm required to remove trees and re-grade my property to the south to improve sight distance in that direction. In all, this will cost upwards of $5,000, and I'm not even changing the driveway configuration, I'm just building a garage for a two-year old house.
My question is this: Why am I paying to have a phone pole moved if it was placed in a dangerous location to begin with? If I cancel my landline service, can I request Verizon to remove the utility pole at their expense? There's a power pole 30 feet back that would serve well, but Verizon and PGE don't share poles I'm told, though I'm talking to PGE to see if there are other options. I'm still talking with ODOT to see if the phone pole issue can be waived, but the requirement is still there and will prevent issuance of the occupancy permit for my garage. It could easily take 90 days to address the phone pole issue which technically means I can't use my garage which is currently under construction.
Any help, recommendation or solutions would be greatly appreciated.
