Professional excavation services for residential, commercial, and industrial projects. Foundation digs, trenching, mass excavation, and precision grading. Serving Syracuse and all of Onondaga County.
Backwell provides professional excavation services in Marcellus, Onondaga County, and the surrounding area. Excavation is our core competency. From precision foundation digs for custom homes to mass excavation for commercial and industrial facilities, Backwell brings the right iron for the right job. We self-haul all material with our own trucks and trailers, which means no waiting on third-party trucking and no schedule surprises. Every excavation project we take on is planned with proper bench cuts, dewatering considerations, and material management built in from the start.
Based in Constantia, NY, we are local to Onondaga County and know the area, the soil conditions, the regulations, and the contractors. When you hire Backwell for your excavation project in Marcellus, you get a crew that shows up on time with the right equipment and gets the job done. Contact us today for a free estimate.
Marcellus occupies the Ninemile Creek valley in southwestern Onondaga County, where the creek drops off the Appalachian Plateau toward the Onondaga lowland through a deeply cut gorge. Upland soils are predominantly Honeoye silt loam and Mardin channery silt loam, with Lordstown channery silt loam on the steeper plateau slopes and Palmyra gravelly loam on the outwash benches along the creek.
Ninemile Creek drains north into Onondaga Lake, and its downstream remediation work imposes additional permitting and monitoring requirements on earthwork that affects the creek corridor. Commercial site work in Marcellus regularly involves shallow shale and siltstone bedrock on the plateau-edge parcels, steep-cut stabilization along the gorge walls, and fragipan-driven perched water on the higher silt loam uplands. Stormwater permitting ties into the Onondaga Lake watershed. Frost depth and slope stability both push detail on pavement, utility, and culvert work in and around the village. Projects in the creek corridor routinely require coordination with the Ninemile Creek remediation program. Subsurface investigation is commonly required before grading plans are finalized on plateau-edge parcels.
Commercial excavation projects in Central New York typically run $25,000 to $800,000 depending on scope, depth, volume, rock conditions, and site access. We provide fixed-price bids after a site walkthrough — no hourly guesswork.
Ground conditions across Central New York vary significantly — glacial till, sandy lake plains, heavier lacustrine clay, and shallow limestone bedrock are all common depending on location. We assess site-specific conditions before bidding and arrive staged for the conditions we expect rather than assuming a clean dig.
Backwell focuses on commercial and municipal excavation starting at $20,000, with most projects running $30,000 to $1 million or more. We work on commercial foundations, mass excavation, site development, and infrastructure — not small residential digs.
Yes. Our own fleet of tri-axle dump trucks handles all material hauling — no waiting on third-party trucking. We control the cycle time, coordinate disposal sites, and maintain manifests for any regulated material.
We keep rock-breaking attachments staged on every Central New York project. Shallow limestone bedrock and hardened glacial till are common here. When conditions require blasting, we coordinate the blasting permits and licensed contractor as part of the job.
Yes. We pull building department permits, NYSDOT right-of-way permits, SPDES/SWPPP documentation, and any county or state environmental permits required. We have standing relationships with engineering departments across Central New York and know the approval timelines in each jurisdiction.