City of Calgary

SE Calgary Excavation for Homes & Industrial Sites

Southeast Calgary is two kinds of work in one quadrant. It holds the city's largest industrial belt, where slabs, pavement and yard soil come out before a site is rebuilt, and a long run of homes from Inglewood and Ramsay to Lake Bonavista, Mahogany and Seton. We break out concrete and asphalt, sort and export soil, prepare subgrades and dig residential basements and drainage across both.

A wide road through a flat industrial district lined with steel warehouse buildings and fenced gravel yards of parked heavy equipment, with a rail line on the prairie beyond.

At a Glance

Municipality: City of Calgary
From our downtown office: South and east of downtown along Deerfoot Trail
Typical servicing: City water, sanitary and storm mains
Postal prefixes: T2G, T2H, T2C, T2J, T2Z, T3M, T3S

(825) 475-5548

Lots, Homes and Sites in Southeast Calgary

By the City's data, 21 communities whose addresses are mainly SE are classed as industrial, more than in any other quadrant. They include Foothills, Highfield, Alyth/Bonnybrook, Burns Industrial, Ogden Shops, Shepard Industrial, East Shepard Industrial, Starfield, Great Plains, Golden Triangle, Fairview Industrial, East Fairview Industrial, Eastfield, Forest Lawn Industrial, Valleyfield, South Foothills and Glendeer Business Park, with Manchester Industrial about 78% SE. Industrial excavation here usually starts with what is already on the ground: floor slabs, loading aprons and parking lots broken out with an excavator-mounted breaker, rebar separated, and concrete, asphalt and soil kept in separate piles so each load goes to the right place.

Inglewood and Ramsay are the SE's inner-city communities, and Downtown East Village addresses to SE as well, though it belongs with the downtown core. Ogden, Fairview, Albert Park/Radisson Heights, Forest Lawn and Southview are 1950s-era communities by the City's structure data. Acadia, Willow Park, Maple Ridge, Lake Bonavista, Bonavista Downs, Parkland, Queensland, Midnapore, Dover, Penbrooke Meadows, Forest Heights and Red Carpet are largely 1960s–70s. In these streets, the work runs from infill demolition and basement digs in Inglewood and Ramsay to sewer service replacement, garage slabs and foundation drainage on houses that are staying.

Newer communities fill out the rest of the quadrant. Deer Ridge, Deer Run, Douglasdale/Glen, McKenzie Lake, Sundance, Riverbend, Erin Woods and Diamond Cove are 1980s–90s communities. McKenzie Towne, Copperfield, Auburn Bay, Mahogany, New Brighton, Cranston, Seton, Walden, Legacy, Rangeview, Chaparral and Belvedere date from the 2000s onward, and some are still building out. Here we dig new-home basements, backfill foundations, correct yard drainage and prepare bases for retaining walls, patios and detached garages.

Ground, Water and Frost

The Bow River runs through the SE, and the communities along it carry some of the largest mapped flood shares in the city. About half of Inglewood lies in the City's regulatory flood fringe; roughly a fifth of Douglasdale/Glen is fringe and about an eighth floodway; and parts of Riverbend, Cranston and Maple Ridge were inside the mapped 2013 flood extent. Those are shares of each community, not of every lot, so we check the parcel, not the community name. On an industrial site the ground question is different: fill on long-used industrial land can mix clay, gravel, rubble and broken concrete. Alberta's OHS Code says mixed soils are treated as the least stable type present, so a trench through variable fill is cut back or shored for its weakest layer.

We do not assume industrial soil is clean or contaminated; testing tells us. The City defines clean fill as natural, unprocessed soil excavated from uncontaminated sites, and says commercial and industrial sites generally need the fill tested before disposal. Commercial haulers need a clean fill approval number 24 hours before arriving at a City landfill, and topsoil is not accepted. Hydrocarbon-impacted soil needs a City industrial waste permit, and the City may refer the owner to a third-party remediation vendor. The environmental consultant assesses the site; we dig to their plan, keep impacted and clean material apart and haul each with its paperwork.

Neighbourhood Notes

Inglewood & Ramsay

The SE's two inner-city communities, with Inglewood along the Bow and only a small part of Ramsay in the mapped flood zones. Infill demolition and basement digs here get a flood-map check for the parcel and a plan for close neighbours and old services.

Ogden & Ogden Shops

Two communities sharing a name: Ogden is a 1950s-era residential community and Ogden Shops is classed industrial. One week can mean a shop floor breakout in one and a house sewer service trench in the other.

Forest Lawn & Albert Park/Radisson Heights

1950s-era communities; Forest Lawn Industrial is a separate industrial community. Garage and slab removal, service replacement and knock-downs on redevelopment lots make up most residential work.

Lake Bonavista, Willow Park & Maple Ridge

Largely 1960s–70s suburbs. Exterior weeping tile, basement floor breakout, backyard regrading and garage slabs are the usual jobs on homes that stay standing.

Riverbend, Douglasdale/Glen & Cranston

Bow River communities, the first two from the 1980s–90s and Cranston from the 2000s onward, each with part of its area in the mapped 2013 flood extent. We read the City's flood mapping for the lot before any basement-level excavation and set up to pump if water appears.

Foothills, Highfield & Alyth/Bonnybrook

Industrial communities by the City's classification. Slab and asphalt breakout, soil testing coordination, utility trenching and pad rebuilding are the typical sequence.

Shepard Industrial, Starfield & Great Plains

Industrial communities where yard and building expansions bring stripping and grading, subgrade compaction and granular base for new pads and parking areas.

Mahogany, Auburn Bay, Seton & Legacy

Communities of the 2000s onward, some still building out. New-home basements, foundation backfill and yard drainage corrections are the work, tied to the lot's approved grades.

Permits and Locates in Southeast Calgary

Authority having jurisdiction: City of Calgary

The City of Calgary issues development and building permits in the SE. For site work, one threshold is useful to know: a development permit for stripping and grading is not required when the area is less than 1,000 square metres, or when the work is already covered by an existing development permit or development agreement; larger industrial regrading should be checked with the City before the machines arrive. Deep excavations follow Alberta's OHS Code: once a worker is in a trench deeper than 1.5 m, and closer to the wall than its depth, the sides must be cut back or supported, and any temporary protective structure in an excavation deeper than 3 m must be designed by a professional engineer. Alberta's pipeline rules also require a search for any pipeline within 30 m of a ground disturbance, which we build into the locate request.

The Excavation Work Southeast Calgary Calls For Most

Concrete Slab & Asphalt Breakout

Driveway, slab, patio and parking lot tear-outs with clean saw-cut edges.

Commercial Pad Prep & Parking Lot Excavation

Building pads and parking lot subgrades built in tested lifts to civil drawings.

Hazardous Soil Removal & Export

Impacted soil dug to the consultant's limits, kept separate and exported with records.

Site Clean-Up & Material Haul-Off

Dirt, clay, rock and debris sorted, hauled off and the site left clean.

Infill Lot Digging & Tight-Access Excavation

Mini and midi excavator digs on narrow infill lots beside neighbouring homes.

Foundation Backfilling & Perimeter Grading

Compacted backfill against new foundations and a perimeter grade that sheds water.

Every service we offer

Close to Southeast Calgary

Downtown Calgary & Beltline

The core, Beltline, Eau Claire and Downtown East Village: tight sites under City streets.

Southwest Calgary

Inner-city infills in Altadore and South Calgary out to the newer west-side communities.

De Winton

A Foothills County hamlet in acreage country on the Highway 552 corridor.

Chestermere

A lakeside city east of Calgary whose Quick Trench program vets excavation contractors.

Excavation in Southeast Calgary: Questions

What happens to concrete and asphalt from an SE industrial breakout?

It is separated on site. The City states that recycling of road asphalt, brick, masonry and concrete is not available at City landfills, and that loads mixed with these materials are charged the Disposal Surcharge Rate. So we break slabs and pavement into manageable pieces, pull out rebar and mesh, and load concrete, asphalt and soil as separate loads. Clean concrete and asphalt typically go to private recycling yards that crush them into aggregate, and scrap steel is recycled separately. Keeping the streams apart from the first cut is what keeps disposal costs predictable.

Do you test the soil before digging on an old industrial lot?

No, and we will not pretend to. Soil testing and assessment are done by an environmental consultant, often through a Phase 2 environmental site assessment, which is Alberta's own term, with results compared against the province's Tier 1 soil and groundwater remediation guidelines, 2024 edition. What we do is dig to the consultant's plan: excavating the impacted areas they mark, keeping impacted and clean soil in separate stockpiles, loading impacted soil into covered trucks and keeping the weigh tickets and manifests that show where each load went.

What backfill do you use around a new foundation in Seton or Mahogany?

Whatever the builder's engineer specifies, within the code's limits. The National Building Code requires backfill within 600 mm of the foundation to contain no deleterious debris and no boulders larger than 250 mm, and the finished backfill to be graded so water does not drain toward the foundation once it settles. In practice that often means screening site soil or importing a granular material, placing it in lifts rather than all at once, and compacting each lift so the yard does not sink against the wall a year later. The wall is braced, and weeping tile and damp-proofing inspected, before any backfill goes in.

Digging in Southeast Calgary?

Call or send the details. Aspen Excavating works from downtown Calgary, and we will look at the site and the access before we price it.

(825) 475-5548 Send the Details