Right-of-Way Clearing in Utah

What counts as a right-of-way

A right-of-way is any corridor someone has the right to use or access, and across Salt Lake, Utah, and Tooele counties they take a few different shapes. The job is the same idea every time: keep a strip open and clean without tearing up everything around it.

• Utility easements — the strips under and around power lines, where the utility needs a clear corridor to run and service their lines
• Pipeline routes — gas and product lines cross a lot of ground along the Wasatch Front, and those corridors have to stay clear of woody growth
• Private access lanes — the lane back to a pasture, a cabin, a well head, or a back building that has grown in on both sides
• County roadsides — shoulders and ditch banks that have filled in with brush and blocked the sight lines at corners
• Irrigation ditches — the ditch banks that Russian olive and tamarisk claim first, until the water and the access are both choked off
• Fence lines and property edges — the legal line between two parcels that nobody can mow once the brush takes over

Right-of-way clearing vs brush clearing vs fence lines

These jobs get talked about like they are the same thing, and they overlap, but the difference matters when you are pricing a project. Brush clearing opens up an area of ground. Right-of-way work follows a line. You are clearing a set width down the length of a corridor, the edges have to stay defined, and you are usually working around overhead lines, buried utilities, or a boundary you cannot cross.

A fence line clearing job is really a kind of right-of-way work — a narrow corridor along a property edge — and if that is what you are after, that guide goes deeper on fence lines specifically. The rest of this page is about the longer, wider corridors: easements, access lanes, and roadsides.

Why corridors grow up so fast here

An open corridor is a perfect place for the worst of our local brush to take hold. There is full sun down the middle, disturbed soil along the edges, and birds dropping seed from the wire above. Leave it a few seasons and it fills in.

What moves in is the same cast we fight everywhere along the Wasatch Front: Russian olive and tamarisk packing the ditch banks and wet spots, Siberian elm volunteering down the fence lines, Gambel oak pushing out from the bench edges, and juniper filling the dry ground. Underneath it, cheatgrass claims the bare dirt and cures into fine fuel by July — which is why an overgrown corridor is a fire path as much as an access problem. That is the case for mulching: the layer of chips it leaves behind shades the ground and slows the regrowth down.

Call Blue Stakes before anyone clears a utility corridor

This is the part people skip, and it is the part that matters most on an easement. If a job involves any grinding below grade, stump work, or soil disturbance near buried lines, Utah law requires a free locate request through Blue Stakes of Utah — the state one-call system — at least two business days before the work starts. You can call 811 or file online, and the utilities come mark their buried lines so nobody hits a gas main or a fiber run.

Forestry mulching that only takes standing growth above the ground is lower risk, but we still get locates marked any time we are working a utility right-of-way, and we coordinate with the easement holder before we touch anything close to their lines. If you are not sure what your easement allows, check the language in your deed first, and we are happy to help you sort out who to call.

When to clear

Late summer through fall is usually the best window for corridor work, same as it is for land clearing generally. The ground is dry and firm, so the machine holds a straight, clean edge without rutting, and the work is done before snow. Winter is a strong second on frozen valley and bench ground, with the leaves down so the operator can see exactly where the corridor edge sits.

Early spring is the worst time, when snowmelt leaves the soil soft and ditch banks at their most fragile. And if the corridor doubles as a fuel break, work backward from the calendar — it should be clear before summer fire season, not during it.

How we do the work

Most of our corridor work is right-of-way clearing done with a forestry mulcher. The machine runs the length of the strip and grinds the standing brush and saplings into mulch right where they stand, up to about 8 inches of woody material. Bigger trees in the corridor get felled first and then mulched.

• Walk and quote. We come out, walk the corridor with you, confirm the width you need held, and give you a flat number. The estimate is free.
• Locate and coordinate. On utility right-of-ways we get Blue Stakes locates marked and check in with the easement holder before we start.
• Mark what stays. Any tree along the edge you want kept, we flag it before the head spins.
• Mulch the corridor. We run the strip to a clean, consistent width and leave the mulch on the ground.
• Grind stumps if needed. If the corridor has to be driveable or mowable, we grind the stumps below grade in the same trip.

What it costs

Corridor clearing prices out like the rest of our mulching work: roughly $1,000 to $2,750+ per acre depending on how thick the growth is, the slope, the terrain, and how easy the access is. Our flat starting price is $1,000 per acre, and stump grinding is $7.50 per inch of diameter with a $175 minimum.

For a long, narrow right-of-way we figure the cleared width times the length, convert it to acreage, and quote you a flat number before the machine starts. You know your price up front, and the risk of a slow day is on us instead of you. For the full breakdown by density and terrain, see our clearing cost guide.

We are based in West Jordan and run corridors across Salt Lake, Utah, and Tooele counties — Herriman, Riverton, Bluffdale, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, and out to the Tooele Valley. Send us photos and the rough length of your corridor and we will get you a free estimate.