Excavation Contractors in Allentown, PA

Excavation contractors in Allentown city limits spend more time on small, tight jobs than on open land. The city counted 125,845 people in 2020, the third-largest total in Pennsylvania, on about 17.6 square miles of land, so most work happens between houses, along alleys and under sidewalks. A typical week here is a cracked sewer lateral in the East Side, an alley garage coming down in the West End, a wet backyard in a South Side twin, and a footing for an addition squeezed between a fence and a neighbor's foundation.

Old houses, old laterals

Allentown's housing ages in rings. Center City has Victorian and terraced rowhouses, the West End was built mostly in the 1920s through the 1940s, and the East and South Sides mostly in the 1940s through the 1960s. Many of those homes still drain through their original clay or cast iron laterals. When a camera shows roots or a sag, the fix is often a dig from the house to the street, and if it crosses the curb, a street opening.

City street openings

Chapter 545 of the city code requires a Department of Public Works permit to open any city street or alley surface. The application is due at least three work days before the dig except in emergencies, cuts are open cut and backfilled with approved crushed aggregate, and a restoration deposit is held for twelve months with 85 percent refunded. Openings in streets that were recently resurfaced need Appeals Committee approval. We handle the permit, the backfill and the patch, and we keep the patch in shape through the warranty year.

Ground that can open up

The city has a documented sinkhole history. In 1993 a large one damaged the Corporate Center on North 7th Street, which was later condemned and torn down, and in December 2011 a hole about 30 by 40 feet opened on the 300 block of North 10th Street and displaced seven families. A leaking water line was named as a possible cause. That is why we treat leaking laterals as urgent, keep roof water away from foundations, and compact every trench we backfill.

Allentown parks and creeks

The city's Trexler-funded park system follows its creeks: the Lehigh Parkway covers 999 acres along the Little Lehigh, Cedar Creek Parkway 127 acres, Trout Creek Parkway 100 acres. Jordan Creek and Little Lehigh Creek join inside the city before reaching the Lehigh River. Homes that back onto these parkways tend to have wetter soil and stricter rules about what can be filled or graded near the stream, and we check those limits before quoting grading close to a creek.

Tight access

Narrow side yards and alley access usually mean a compact excavator or skid steer and more truck trips. We look at gate widths, overhead wires and where a dump truck can stand before we price a job, and we protect sidewalks and curbs on the way in. Call (610) 756-2728 or

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