Division 05
Site work & utilities
Earthwork, grading, utilities, paving and drainage, performed by our own crews with our own equipment and our own trucking — which is why the schedule holds.
Typical span 6 weeks–8 months
05The work
Site work is the division that decides whether a commercial project starts on time, and it is the one most often treated as a preliminary rather than as the critical path it usually is.
Everything waits on it. There is no slab until there is a pad, no pad until the mass grading is done, no utilities until the trenches are open, and no building permit inspection sequence until the underground is in and tested. A fortnight lost in the dirt is a fortnight lost at the end, and it is lost in the worst way: at the beginning, where nobody is watching yet.
This is the division we self-perform most completely, with our own equipment and our own trucking, and the reason is specific. An excavation contractor with four other jobs will send their crew to whichever one is screaming loudest. Our crew goes where our schedule says. And when the material has to be on site the morning the crew is, our trucks bring it rather than a haulier fitting us into a window.
Two local realities govern the work. Soils — parts of this region are expansive clay, which changes the foundation system, the subgrade preparation and the moisture conditioning regime, and all of that comes from the geotechnical report rather than from experience. And season — the earthwork window here is shorter than the calendar implies, and a project that misses it does not lose weeks, it loses a winter.
The earthwork window in this region is shorter than the calendar suggests. A project that gets its underground in and its pad built before the ground closes carries on through the winter inside a building. A project that misses it waits. That is the single strongest argument for starting the design conversation earlier than feels necessary.
Establish these first
- The geotechnical report
- Everything in this division is priced from it. Without one, every number is a guess with a large range on it.
- Existing topography and the finished grade
- How much cut and fill, and whether the site balances or needs import or export.
- Utilities to the property line
- What is there, what size, and how far. A long run or an undersized service is a real cost line.
- Drainage and detention
- What the jurisdiction requires. Detention frequently takes land an owner assumed was buildable.
- Season and sequence
- When the work can realistically start, and whether it can be finished before the ground closes.
What you receive
Compaction and materials test records, as-built survey, utility sign-offs
In the format your records require, agreed at proposal stage rather than discovered at closeout. The full list is on closeout and what you receive.
05.1Values
What this division costs
Planning ranges, wide on purpose. The full schedule with every division on it, and the soft costs that sit on top of any construction number, is on the budgets page.
| Div | Item | Unit | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05.10 | Mass excavation and gradingCut, fill, moisture conditioning, compaction | CY | $9–$26 |
| 05.15 | Import or export of materialIncluding haul, with our own trucking | CY | $14–$38 |
| 05.20 | Structural fill, placed and testedImported, in lifts, density tested | CY | $32–$68 |
| 05.25 | Over-excavation for expansive soilsPer the geotechnical report | CY | $18–$44 |
| 05.30 | Water service to the buildingTap, line, valves, meter pit | LF | $95–$260 |
| 05.35 | Sanitary sewer serviceLine, manholes, connection to main | LF | $110–$290 |
| 05.40 | Storm drainagePipe, inlets, outfall, erosion protection | LF | $130–$340 |
| 05.45 | Detention pond or underground detentionPer the drainage report | LS | $42,000–$380,000 |
| 05.50 | Asphalt paving, commercialSubgrade, base, asphalt, striping | SY | $38–$82 |
| 05.55 | Concrete paving, heavy dutyDock aprons, drive lanes, truck courts | SY | $78–$165 |
| 05.60 | Curb, gutter and flatworkIncluding accessible routes | LF | $34–$78 |
| 05.70 | Erosion and sediment controlInstalled, maintained through the project, removed | LS | $9,000–$64,000 |
| 05.90 | Rock excavationWhere encountered and classified as rock | CY | $48–$160 |
Units are SF square foot of gross building area unless stated, LF linear foot, CY cubic yard, SY square yard, SQ roofing square (100 SF), EA each, LS lump sum, PCT a percentage of construction cost. Division references are for this document only and are not CSI MasterFormat numbers.
Figures are USD planning ranges for commercial construction in the Pikes Peak region. They exclude land, design fees where separately engaged, permit and tap fees, furnishings, equipment and any applicable tax, and they assume normal site conditions, normal soils and a buildable season. They are published so an owner can size a project before there is a drawing to price. They are planning ranges, not a bid. Reviewed October 2026. A price for your project comes from a proposal against a defined scope. See the disclaimer.
05.2Questions
Questions about this division
Specific to this kind of work. The general ones — contracts, pay applications, retainage, change orders, insurance, bonding — are on the FAQ page.
Why is the geotechnical report so important here?
Because parts of the Pikes Peak region sit on expansive clay, which swells when it takes on water and lifts whatever is on top of it. The remedies — over-excavation and replacement, moisture conditioning, a structural floor, drilled piers — are all substantial costs, and which one applies is determined by the report rather than by anybody’s experience of the street. A slab designed without one is a claim with a delay fuse on it.
Does the site balance?
That is the question that decides whether this division is a modest line or a very large one. A site that balances — where the cut equals the fill — avoids importing or exporting material, which is mostly trucking cost. A site that does not can need thousands of cubic yards moved on or off, and at that point having our own trucks stops being a convenience and becomes a price.
How long does a utility service take to get?
Longer than almost anyone budgets for, and the electrical service is the usual offender — the lead time on switchgear and on the utility’s own work has in recent years exceeded the construction duration of the building it serves. The practical consequence is that the service application happens during design rather than after permit, and it is one of the clearest cases where a design-build arrangement saves real months.
Can you do site work for somebody else’s building?
Yes, routinely, as a subcontractor to another general contractor or directly for an owner. It is a self-performed division rather than a package we broker, so it is work we can take on its own merits. Send the civil drawings and the geotechnical report and we will price it.
00The rest
The other four divisions
Design-Build
The architect and the superintendent work for the same company. A detail that will not build gets caught at the drawing board by the person who would have had to install it.
- You receive
- Permit set, schedule of values, closeout package, as-builts, O&M manuals
Ground-up commercial and institutional buildings in the Pikes Peak region — aviation, retail, automotive and industrial — with the site work and utilities self-performed.
- You receive
- Full drawing set, schedule of values, commissioning record, closeout package
Fitting out a shell or an existing space against a lease date that has already been signed. The work letter usually matters more than anything in the drawings.
- You receive
- Permit set, landlord sign-offs, certificate of occupancy, closeout package
Expanding or rebuilding a facility that has to keep operating. The phasing plan is the project; the construction is the easy half.
- You receive
- Permit set, phasing plan, schedule of values, closeout package
Describe the building you need
What it is for, roughly how big, where it would go, and when you need to be in it. On a first call we can usually give you a realistic per-square-foot range, a realistic end date, and an honest answer about whether a firm this size is the right one for it.
T-Bone Construction, Inc. · 1310 Ford St, Colorado Springs, CO 80915