Ditching, cleaning, regrading, and roadside drainage for towns, villages, counties, and NYSDOT. Annual maintenance contracts and project work. GPS-guided equipment. $20K minimum.
Backwell provides ditching, cleaning, regrading, and roadside drainage services for towns, villages, counties, and NYSDOT across Central New York. We work under annual maintenance contracts and on a project-by-project basis. Minimum project size is $20,000. We are commercial and municipal only , no residential driveway ditching.
Our crews run GPS-guided ditch cleaners, specialized ditching buckets, vac trucks for culvert work, and dozers for shoulder reconstruction. We understand what a highway superintendent actually needs: work that holds through the spring melt, ditches that drain at the slopes your soils require, and a contractor who shows up ready to work around traffic control and school bus routes.
Improper drainage is the single largest cause of pavement failure in Central New York. The freeze-thaw climate here is brutal. Water that sits in the subgrade freezes, expands, lifts the pavement, thaws, and leaves voids the road collapses into. The result is frost heave, alligator cracking, edge failure, and potholes that swallow plow blades. Every dollar spent on functional ditching saves three to five dollars in premature pavement rehabilitation.
On top of that, CNY soils work against you. Much of the region sits on glacial clay and silty clay loam. These soils don't drain on their own , they need ditches cut to steeper slopes than the textbook calls for, with more frequent cleanouts and often an underdrain system on the worst sections. A contractor who has only worked sandy soils will undercut the grades and the ditch will pond within two seasons.
| Work Item | Unit | Typical Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Existing ditch cleaning | per LF | $6 – $14 | Includes spoil removal |
| New ditch cutting | per LF | $12 – $28 | GPS-guided, includes backslope shaping |
| Ditch regrading (reshape only) | per LF | $8 – $18 | Existing ditch, restoring slope and section |
| Vactor culvert cleaning | per hour | $275 – $425 | Truck plus operator; disposal extra |
| Shoulder drainage rebuild | per mile | $18,000 – $45,000 | Pull, regrade, stabilize both shoulders |
| Underdrain install (4" perf) | per LF | $22 – $38 | Trench, pipe, stone, fabric |
| Culvert replacement (15-24") | each | $3,500 – $9,500 | Depends on length, depth, traffic control |
For a realistic estimate on a specific road, call us with the linear footage, culvert count, and whether you need traffic control. We'll walk the road with the superintendent at no cost on anything over $20,000.
Annual maintenance contracts are typically awarded in late winter for the upcoming construction season. The municipality provides a list of roads with priorities, and we execute the work on a time-and-materials or unit-price basis as weather and highway crew schedules allow. Ideal for towns and villages that want predictable pricing, guaranteed crew availability, and continuity year over year.
Project-based work covers specific roads under a defined scope , for example, a county road that needs 4.2 miles of ditch cleaning and 14 driveway culverts replaced before a 2027 paving project. These are bid competitively with a firm price, firm schedule, and firm completion date. This is also how most NYSDOT ditching work is structured.
We bid both structures and carry the bonding capacity required for state and county work. For paving preparation and reconstruction tie-ins, see our municipal road construction page.
For storm drainage systems beyond the right-of-way, see our storm drainage page. For drain tile and field drainage, see agricultural drainage. General excavation on excavation services.
Our municipal ditching clients include NYSDOT regional maintenance yards, county highway departments across CNY, town highway superintendents in dozens of towns, and village DPWs. We've worked on state routes, county roads, local roads, parking lots, and municipal facility grounds. If you're planning a paving project for 2027 and need the drainage addressed this season so the new asphalt doesn't fail in three years, that's the work we do every summer.
For budgeting, see commercial site work costs in Central New York. Client feedback at reviews.
Most CNY towns and counties award annual ditching maintenance contracts in February or March for the April-November construction season. Unit-price contract (per LF cleaning, per hour vactor work, per culvert replaced) with a not-to-exceed total and a priority road list. We invoice as work is completed. Multi-year contracts with annual renewal options are increasingly common.
$20,000. Roughly a half mile of standard ditch cleaning or a small culvert replacement package. Commercial and municipal only.
Yes. MUTCD-compliant traffic control including flaggers, signage, cones, arrow boards. For NYSDOT work we use certified flaggers and follow regional requirements. Traffic control is priced as a separate line item.
This is our sweet spot. We clean and regrade ditches, replace failing culverts, and stabilize shoulders 4-8 weeks ahead of the paving crew. Gives subgrade time to drain down to design moisture content before base is reset and new surface laid.
Depends on municipality preference and material. Clean spoils are often spread along the backslope or hauled to the town highway yard for reuse. Contaminated or organic material gets hauled to a permitted disposal site. We document disposal when the municipality needs a paper trail.
Call Backwell at (315) 400-2654.
Backwell is part of a Central New York family of service companies. When a commercial site needs ongoing property management after construction, our sister company RenPro Property Management handles leasing, rent collection, and maintenance across 100+ properties in Syracuse, Oswego, Auburn, and Utica. Learn more about our network of companies.