City of Chestermere

Chestermere Excavation Around the Lake

In Chestermere, the City vets the excavation contractor as part of the building permit. Its revised Quick Trench program is automatically initiated when a building permit application is submitted, and the excavation contractor must be vetted by completing five installations. We dig basements, service trenches and drainage around Chestermere Lake, and we tell owners and builders plainly where the program stands for their job before the permit goes in.

Large homes with private docks along the shore of a calm lake under a clear prairie sky.

At a Glance

Municipality: City of Chestermere
From our downtown office: About 25 minutes east on Highway 1
Typical servicing: Municipal water and sewer
Postal prefixes: T1X

(825) 475-5548

Lots, Homes and Sites in Chestermere

Chestermere's growth explains its housing. It began as the Summer Village of Chestermere Lake in 1977, became a town on 1 March 1993 and a city on 1 January 2015, and the City records that the community grew by more than 150% from 2004 to 2014. The 2025 municipal census counted 32,255 residents, up from 22,163 in the 2021 federal census. With that pace across the 13 areas in the City's population tables, from Westmere and Rainbow Falls to Kinniburgh, Dawson's Landing and South Shores, much of the housing is recent, and new-home basements, backfill and service trenches for builders remain the core excavation work.

The Quick Trench program shapes how that work is contracted. The City's building permits page says the revised program is automatically initiated when building permit applications are submitted, that the excavation contractor must be vetted by completing five installations, and that a contractor who has qualified stays qualified for four years. Read the City's page for the current conditions, and ask any excavation contractor, including us, where they stand under the program before the application goes in. We will give you a straight answer about our own status and will not claim a qualification the City has not confirmed.

Finished homes need the same exterior work as anywhere with basements: weeping tile and foundation drainage digs down to the footing, rebuilding settled backfill against foundation walls, garage pads, and shallow trenches for power to a detached garage. Around a lake that is managed irrigation water, extra care goes into where water and sediment leave a site. Sump discharge and yard runoff should not be pointed at a neighbour or sent toward the shoreline without the City's approval, and an open excavation needs silt control so a summer storm does not wash the dig into the street.

Ground, Water and Frost

Chestermere Lake is not a natural lake in the usual sense. It is an irrigation reservoir: the City's history says the original wetland was considered perfect for use as a balancing pool for the Western Irrigation Block, and by 1907 a dam and canal system had been built and the wetland developed into a lake. The Western Irrigation District says its water is diverted from the Bow River at Harvie Passage, flows through the City of Calgary and into Chestermere Reservoir via the Western Headworks Canal. That makes the lake part of a working water system, and any dig near a canal should be checked with the irrigation district first; we do not assume canal land is open to work.

Living beside a reservoir does not tell anyone how high the water table sits under a particular Chestermere lot, and no verified figure exists for any part of the city. A geotechnical report and test holes answer that for each site. Standing water cannot be left in the bottom of a footing excavation under the code, so a lakeside basement is priced and scheduled with a pump on hand. Footings for a heated basement on clay still start from the code's 1.2 m minimum. Trenches deeper than 1.5 m get sloped walls or a trench box before a worker climbs down, and lines inside a locate's 1 m hand-expose strip are uncovered by shovel or hydrovac before the machine moves in.

Neighbourhood Notes

Westmere

One of the 13 areas in the City's population tables. For a new-home basement here, the Quick Trench question is settled with the City before the permit application, not after the machine arrives.

Rainbow Falls

Detached garage pads and the power trench to them are common add-ons on finished lots. The garage feed is a customer-owned line, so it gets a private locate before any digging nearby.

Kinniburgh North and South

Listed as two separate areas in the City's tables. Where backfill against a foundation has settled, we dig out the soft material, rebuild in compacted lifts and reset the grade to fall away from the wall.

Dawson's Landing

A water or sewer service repair here means a trench from the house toward the connection, dug to the City's requirements, with the pipe left exposed for the plumber and the inspection before backfill.

Lakepointe and The Cove

Where a lot backs onto the water, stockpiles are kept covered and set back, and silt fence goes up on the low side before any stripping, so sediment stays out of the reservoir.

South Shores and East Lakeview Shores

For weeping tile and sump work, ask the City where foundation drainage may discharge before we dig the trench, rather than assuming the nearest low spot will do.

Chelsea and Waterford

On streets where neighbours are already living, haul-off trucks are loaded tidily and mud tracked onto the road is cleaned up the same day.

West Creek and Paradise Meadows

Two more of the areas in the City's population tables. Winter basement digs here use ground heat or insulation so the excavation bottom never freezes before the footings are poured.

Permits and Locates in Chestermere

Authority having jurisdiction: City of Chestermere

The City of Chestermere issues building permits here, and its building permits page is also where the Quick Trench program is set out, so the permit and the excavation contractor's status go together: confirm both with the City before booking a dig date. A Utility Safety Partners request covers the utility-owned lines; lodge it no fewer than three full working days before digging, earlier in peak season, and expect to renew it if work slips beyond 30 calendar days or the report's own expiry. The owner's lines are a separate job: a garage power feed, or water and sewer piping past the shut-off at the property line, is the owner's to have located privately.

The Excavation Work Chestermere Calls For Most

Deep Basement Excavation

Full and walkout basement digs for new custom homes on open lots and acreages.

Deep Utility Trenching (Water, Sewer & Storm)

Shored, bedded trenches for water, sanitary and storm service lines.

Foundation Backfilling & Perimeter Grading

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

French Drain & Weeping Tile Excavation

Digs to the footing, new perforated tile in clear stone, and yard French drains.

Shallow Utility Trenching

Narrow trenches for gas, electrical conduit, fibre and suite power feeds.

Hydrovac & Non-Destructive Daylighting

Non-destructive digging to expose buried lines before any machine gets close.

Every service we offer

Close to Chestermere

Northeast Calgary

Bridgeland and Renfrew infills, warehouse districts and the northeast suburbs.

Southeast Calgary

Inglewood and Ramsay infills, the largest industrial belt and newer deep-south suburbs.

Rocky View County

Growth hamlets, country residential communities and farmland beside Calgary.

Excavation in Chestermere: Questions

What is Chestermere's Quick Trench program?

It is a City of Chestermere program, set out on its building permits page, that deals with the excavation contractor on a permit. According to that page, the revised program is automatically initiated when a building permit application is submitted, the excavation contractor must be vetted by completing five installations, and a contractor who qualifies keeps that status for four years. The City's page has the current details and should be read before you apply. Ask any contractor you are considering, including us, how the program applies to them, and treat the City's confirmation as the answer that counts.

Can you dig a basement in Chestermere through the winter?

Yes, with the right precautions. A footing excavation that freezes during construction breaks a building code rule, so a winter dig here is covered with insulating blankets or warmed with ground heat, and the footings are formed and poured soon after the hole is opened. Under the OHS Code, frost in the walls is not accepted as a substitute for shoring, and frozen spoil cannot go back in as backfill. A hard frozen crust also leaves the hand-expose rule in place for lines near locate marks: the ground is thawed, or the line is uncovered by hydrovac. Book locates early, since winter requests can take longer.

Is Chestermere part of Calgary or Rocky View County?

Neither. Chestermere has been its own city since 1 January 2015. The City of Chestermere issues building permits, runs the Quick Trench program and sets its own requirements, so Calgary's servicing specifications and Rocky View County's permits do not apply inside city limits. What carries across the boundary are the provincial layers: Alberta's building code, the excavation sections of the OHS Code and the province-wide locate system. At about 21 km by road east of our downtown Calgary office, it is one of the closest communities we serve outside the city.

Digging in Chestermere?

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