PGE continues to replace tree connections posted on 06/01/2022
Portland General Electric (PGE) completed approximately 100
replacements of electrical service drops that were attached to trees on
Mountain Properties during 2021 and has continued the efforts this year,
according to Andrea Platt, PGE Media Relations. Platt noted that this will be a
“multi year project” to bring the drops up to current standards.
Property owners who have a PGE stake on their property with
a work order starting with the letter “M” are encouraged to contact the company
to work through design options for their site.
“Each of these tree attachments are dealt with on a
case-by-case basis,” Platt said. “You can imagine it’s time consuming.”
She added that there are currently hundreds of ongoing
conversations with various landowners, while approximately 200 attachments are
also on U.S. Forest Service land.
Platt noted that people generally understand the safety
component of the project.
“That seems to be resonating,” she said. “That’s a good
thing.”
Platt added that almost all poles that hold distribution
lines are “direct buried” into the ground, a standard industry practice where
the pole is inserted directly into the ground to the required depth and then
backfilled with tamped gravel.
No precise timeline for the project completion was
available, and Platt added that the efforts have been complicated by the
coronavirus pandemic and supply chain issues.
For more information, or if you have a stake on your
property and want to contact PGE, please visit
https://portlandgeneral.com/tree-attachment.
By Garth Guibord/MT | 
