Excavation contractors in Erie County, NY

New York is glaciated hill-and-valley country: deep till in the valleys, shale and siltstone plateaus above, and the Adirondacks' granitic gneiss to the northeast. Slopes over 15 percent run 21 percent on average but reach 50-60 percent in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the hill counties along the Pennsylvania line, so bench cuts and contour work are ordinary in those counties. The lake plains (Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse) are the gentle end: lacustrine silt and clay over shale, wet with high seasonal water, and the classic northern water problem: 11 percent hydric soils, 17-inch median water tables, and frost at 42 inches. Shale bedrock lies within 50 inches on 20-40 percent of the plateau counties (Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Chenango), so rock excavation is a normal line item; the Adirondack counties add crystalline rock and stony glacial drift. Shrink-swell is negligible statewide. Tug Hill and the North Country add heavy lake-effect snow loads that shape site drainage.