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CENTRAL ILLINIOS | They put one of those 345000 volt lines through us a couple years ago. For the easement they paid us the appraised value of the land in the easement plus crop damages. Most in this neighborhood went together as a group and hired one attorney to represent us. The easement was 175' wide and was through the middle of our field(so we got both halves as opposed to the ones who had it on the edge of their farm and each neighbor got half). It came to around $18500 per acre($185000 for a half mile 175' wide).
They will caution you to settle before it goes to eminent domain or you will get less. I don't believe that is true however because a few holdouts here took it that far and the judge sent the parties away to"negotiate some more". I did not hear how it turned out in the end.
The power company hired an outside firm to negotiate the easements. They are professionals and they travel the nation from one project to the next so they spend every day negotiating easements and they know just what to say to get you to sign. I am pretty sure they work on commission so the quicker you sign the better it is for them. I was surprised how many just took the first offer which of course was the lowest.
Having said all that I was surprised that in a few instances they jumped the line across the road or over to the next farm to go around someone who was not going to let them come through without a fight.
The construction itself was interesting to watch. They work through some pretty tough conditions. When it rained they took dozers out in the standing corn or beans and bladed the sloppy mud off to the side then tracked back an forth on the less sloppy mud until it dried a little on top. By then it was compacted so hard they could get their cement trucks, pickups,end loaders, and whatever else they needed out there to pour the foundations for the poles. In the worst mud the had to build roads to get in and out by laying down what they called matting - these are say 20' square wood structures made out of a bunch of 2x4's on edge nailed together then laid out there in rows to drive on. They will ask you what you want to do with the dirt that comes out of the hole. Around here it had some rocks in it so most made them haul it out but they will spread it out on site or haul it somewhere for you if you want it -everything's negotiable.
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New power line easement
