Install or Repair to Repave: What a Civil Engineering Contractor Does Start to Finish

Most underground jobs pass through four or five companies before the site is whole again. One locates the lines, another digs, a pipe crew installs or repairs, and a paving or concrete company comes back weeks later to patch. Every handoff is a place where schedule slips, responsibility blurs and the patch never quite matches.

A civil engineering contractor can carry the whole job. In California that is a Class A General Engineering contractor: a builder licensed for underground utilities, excavation, drainage, concrete and paving. Not a design firm. The design and the stamp stay with your engineer. What changes is that one licensed crew builds every step, from the first locate to the last square foot of new surface.

What "start to finish" actually covers

1. Find what's there. We call 811, then locate the private lines 811 doesn't mark and expose the ones that matter with our own hydrovac truck, so depths and conflicts are known before anyone commits to a route.
2. Plan the work around the site. Access, shoring or sloping, traffic control if we're in the street, where spoil goes, and the permit and inspection sequence.
3. Open the ground. Saw-cut or core the surface clean so the patch stays small, then excavate under our Cal/OSHA annual trench permit with a competent person on site.
4. Install or repair. New fire lines, water mains, sewer laterals, storm drains and conduit, or repairs to lines that are cut, cracked, broken or leaking. Wet and dry utilities alike.
5. Test and inspect. Pressure tests, flushing, camera runs or mandrels, whichever the line and the agency call for, with the inspector signing off before anything is buried.
6. Backfill and compact. Bedding, backfill and compaction to the specification, or slurry where the agency requires it.
7. Restore the surface. Asphalt, concrete, curb, sidewalk or landscape, patched or repaved to match what was there. In the street, that means the agency's restoration standard, including a T-cut repave where it's required.

Why one contractor for every step matters

• No gap between trades. The crew that opens the trench is the crew that closes it, so there's no waiting for the next company to fit you in.
• One answer when the ground surprises you. A line nobody drew, a broken pipe next to the new one, rock where the plans showed soil. We find it, price the fix in writing and keep going once you approve it, instead of stopping to bring in someone new.
• The patch is part of the plan. When the same contractor cuts and restores, the cut is made with the patch in mind: clean edges, the smallest opening that does the job, and material that matches.
• One point of responsibility. If something isn't right, there's one licensed contractor to call, not a debate between four.

Where this comes up most

• Fire lines and water mains: from the water purveyor's connection or vault, through the backflow assembly, to the building's point of connection, then the street or driveway put back.
• Sewer and storm drain: a broken lateral or drain found, repaired or replaced, and the yard, driveway or parking lot restored.
• Utility conflicts: a line in the way of a footing, caisson or new building, relocated or lowered with the Engineer of Record's approval.
• Edison and LADWP electrical services: trench, conduit, vaults and pads to the utility's design, and the pavement restored after.

Where our work stops

We build site work from the street connection to the building. Plumbing inside the building is your plumber's, fire sprinklers are the fire sprinkler contractor's, and wiring is the electrician's or the utility's. We are a licensed contractor, not an engineering firm: where a design is needed or has to change, your engineer designs it and the agency approves it, and we build it. Permit and agency fees are paid by the owner directly to the agency.

Getting started

Send us what you have: plans, a utility letter, a city notice, or a few photos and a description of the problem. We'll tell you what it takes, start to finish, and what we need from you to give you a written price.