I won't think that a glue-lam pole would be good to use outdoors. I heard that if you drill into a glue-lam, you can ruin the glue inside of the hole. Thus allowing it to rot or fall apart quicker.
Look at a few webpages from the different suppliers they all state that their poles can be field drilled for last minute modifications with normal tools, so I don't think that they are worried about water intrusion causing rot or delaminating.
One manufacture says they have been making these poles since 1963 so the product is not new. I guess that they are just new to our local utility so that's why i have never seen them here before.
