Dirt work in Shawnee changes with the ground under it. Pottawatomie County hands you three grounds inside a short drive. The North Canadian bottom east and south of town is sandy alluvium. It drains fast and shifts under a loaded machine. The Sandstone Hills covering most of the county sit on Permian sandstone. That rock can start 20 to 40 inches below the grass. Between them run stream terraces of fine sandy loam over clay subsoil. Same county, three different days on a dozer.
We run out of Ada, about 47 miles south of Shawnee, one county down. Moving a D6 dozer and a 30,000-pound excavator that far costs money. So full-scope jobs are what pay for the trip. A homesite cut and fill, a pond, a building pad with its drainage, a driveway rebuilt end to end. Dirt work is one piece of what we take on in this town. Call (580) 344-7473, describe your ground and your acreage, and we will say whether it fits.
Tell us about your property and we'll get back to you fast.
The bottom ground along the North Canadian is Gaddy soil. The soil survey set its type location about two miles east and one mile south of Shawnee. It is loamy fine sand over fine sand, and water runs right through it. The survey lists occasional brief flooding there from March through October. Sandy fill will not hold a compacted pad the way clay does. So bottom jobs get built higher and keyed into firm ground before they are shaped to shed water. Step up onto the stream terraces and the soil turns to Konawa fine sandy loam. Under it sits a clay subsoil running 18 to 30 percent clay. We save that subsoil when we strip a site, because moving and placing dirt at volume starts there.
West and south of town the county rises into the Sandstone Hills. That is where a dirt day gets expensive. Stephenville soil covers those side slopes, weathered off Permian sandstone. The weakly cemented rock under it can start 20 to 40 inches down. A pond dug there can hit rock before it ever holds water. A hillside pad can turn from dirt work into rock work in one pass. Cut and fill balance matters more here than on flat bottom ground. Broken sandstone often goes back in as fill, so less material gets hauled up the hill. That is the job the 30,000-pound excavator rides up on the trailer for. It is also why hillside numbers come from a site visit instead of a phone call.
Pottawatomie County ground is still working off April 19, 2023. The Shawnee tornado that day was rated EF2, with winds of 130 to 135 mph. It ran 15.5 miles and reached 2,300 yards wide at its worst. It formed near Bethel Acres, crossed western Shawnee, and ended north of Aydelotte. Every building on the Oklahoma Baptist University campus took damage. Cleanup on the residential side left cleared lots and ground rutted by equipment, with stump holes still open. Debris pushed into a low spot and covered over keeps settling for years. Dirt work on those lots means pulling out what got buried. Then the pad comes back to a grade a builder can use.
The rest is acreage work outside the city limits. Someone picks a homesite off a section road, and the road is the first problem. A driveway has to leave the county road at a workable grade and cross the bar ditch. Then the homesite gets a pad cut and filled to the builder's elevation. Rural drives out here wash out because sandy soil moves once water finds a channel. Repairing a gully means rebuilding the crown and giving the water a ditch to follow. Bottom work near the river can also sit inside a mapped flood zone, so that gets checked first. Once the fill is in, getting a surface true to grade is the last pass.
More about the service itself is on our Dirt Work page, and everything we do around town is on the Shawnee service-area page.
Answers specific to dirt work work around Shawnee. Something else on your mind? Call us.
Cedar taking the pasture, a pad to build, an old house to take down, or a pond you have been thinking about for years? Call or send the form. We come look at the property with you, and the estimate is free, from the owner who runs the machines.
Tell us about your property and we'll get back to you fast.
