Earthwork

Bulk earthmoving that takes a site from existing contours to design grade — cuts excavated, fills placed in controlled lifts, and quantities balanced to minimize import and export wherever the design allows. We review shrink and swell factors from the geotechnical report against plan quantities before pricing, flag balance problems early, and sequence the haul so scrapers and trucks handle dirt once, not twice. Where a true balance is impossible, borrow sources or spoil disposal are planned and priced up front.

Stripping, benching on slopes, scarifying, and fine grading to the tolerances the next scope needs — whether that is lime-treated subgrade, select fill under a pad, or flexible base under paving. Fine grading is where an earthwork package is won or lost at handoff: a subgrade held tight to line and grade means the utility, paving, and concrete crews behind us are not correcting our work on their schedule.

Fill placed in lifts sized to the equipment and compacted to the density the project geotechnical engineer specifies — typically a percentage of standard or modified Proctor within a defined moisture range. In Texas clays that means water trucks and discing are production tools, not accessories: soils are dried or wetted to workable moisture before the roller ever earns its density. We manage moisture lift by lift so field testing passes the first time.

Loaded proof-rolls that expose pumping, rutting, and soft zones before they get buried under fill or concrete. Where unsuitable material shows up — organics, wet clays, uncontrolled fill from a previous use — we document it, communicate it immediately, and present options: over-excavate and replace, dry and recompact, or stabilize in place. The decision stays with your engineer; our job is to surface the condition early with real quantities attached.

Perimeter controls, stabilized construction exits, and interim drainage shaped so the site sheds storms during grading, not just at final grade. On permitted sites we build and maintain the SWPPP measures that protect the work — silt fence, rock checks, inlet protection — and adjust them as phasing moves across the site. Grading that manages water while it is underway protects both the schedule and the compliance record. See erosion & drainage control.

Plenty of general contractors carry small grading scopes with rented iron, and on a flat pad in friendly soils that can work. Mass grading is a different animal: cut-and-fill balance, haul sequencing, moisture management, and compaction verification are full-time disciplines, and mistakes get buried where they are expensive to find. If your project involves meaningful cut and fill quantities, expansive clays, imported or exported material, or a schedule where the dirt releases everything else, a contractor whose core business is earthwork removes the single largest early-schedule risk. We price from the civil set and geotechnical report, so you can compare a self-perform estimate against a firm number for the same scope before deciding.

The plan compares existing and proposed surfaces to compute cut and fill volumes, but bank, loose, and compacted volumes are three different numbers. Texas clays can shrink ten to fifteen percent or more from bank to compacted fill, and rock swells the other direction. A site that balances on paper before shrink can come up tens of thousands of yards short after it. Add unsuitable material that must be wasted, topsoil reserved for landscape areas, and trench spoil from utilities, and the real balance moves again. We run these adjustments during plan review, tell you whether the site genuinely balances, and if it does not, price the import or export up front instead of discovering it in month three.

Three parties, deliberately separated. Your geotechnical engineer sets the specification — target density as a percentage of Proctor, moisture range, lift thickness, and any treatment requirements. An independent testing laboratory, engaged by the owner or GC, runs field density tests as lifts are placed and reports results directly to your team. TerraTek executes to the specification and manages moisture and lift discipline so testing passes the first time. We do not grade our own homework, and you should be wary of any contractor who offers to. What we do provide is coordination: we schedule around the technician, hold lifts open for testing, and keep placement records so the paper trail matches the dirt.

Both. We bid earthwork as a standalone scope for GCs who hold the rest of the sitework elsewhere, and we deliver it inside larger packages — clearing through paving — under our turnkey site development model. The practical difference is interface risk: as a standalone grading contractor we hand verified subgrade to trades we do not control, so handoff documentation and survey become the contract language. Inside a bundled package, the same team that graded the site builds the pads and sets the utilities, which eliminates the gaps where scope disputes usually live. Either way the earthwork itself is executed the same way — the choice is about how many contracts you want to manage.

The civil set — grading plan, existing conditions survey, and details — plus the geotechnical report. If a SWPPP or drainage report exists, include it. From those we build quantities with shrink and swell applied, flag unsuitable-material and balance risks, and return a proposal with clear inclusions, exclusions, and the assumptions behind the number. If plans are still at sixty or ninety percent, we can price with stated allowances so you carry a real budget figure early instead of a placeholder. Send documents through our contact page along with the working schedule — earthwork pricing is only useful if the sequence behind it is achievable.