Excavation Consulting & Emergency Excavation (Landslides, Flooding, Culverts)

When a bank lets go above a driveway in Brinnon, or a culvert under a Quilcene forest road washes out in a December storm, the first call usually goes to a neighbor and the second goes to an excavator. Eaglemount Excavation, LLC answers that second call across Jefferson County from our base in Chimacum. We do the emergency work that keeps you in your house and gets your driveway open, and we do the quieter consulting work that stops the emergency from happening on the next lot you buy.

What we do

Landslide & slide cleanup

A slide on the Olympic Peninsula is usually wet glacial till and clay letting go of a cut slope after weeks of rain. We clear the material off the driveway or away from the house, stockpile or haul it [VERIFY: haul-away options], and look at the scarp above to judge whether more is coming. The first goal is access and safety, not a finished repair. Once the ground dries we can cut the slope back to a stable angle, install a drain to take water out of the bank, or build a retaining wall or rockery to hold it. A slide inside a buffer under the Critical Areas Ordinance (JCC 18.22) may need a geotechnical report before permanent repair, and we will tell you when that is the case.

Washed-out culverts

Driveway culverts fail two ways here: they plug with debris and the water goes over the road, or the pipe rusts through and the road caves in. Either way, your driveway is gone until the culvert is fixed. We dig out the failed pipe, replace it with a properly sized culvert [VERIFY: culvert sizes and materials stocked], bed it in crushed rock and rebuild the driveway over it. On the steep Hood Canal side around Brinnon and Quilcene, undersized culverts are the most common cause of a washout, so we size up when the ditch shows it needs it. If the culvert carries a stream, state approval may be required before replacement [VERIFY: how stream-crossing permits are handled].

After the storm: the first hour

Get people and pets out of anything the slide or water could reach. Do not walk on the slide or under the scarp. If you can reach the shutoffs safely, turn off water and power to the affected area. Take photos of everything before anyone moves material, because your insurer will want them. Then call (360) 301-1711 and tell us what you see: where the water is going, whether the road is passable, whether a septic tank or well is in the debris. That call lets us load the right equipment before we leave Chimacum. If a county road is blocked, that is the county’s job, and we will say so.

Site evaluation before you buy or build

Land looks different in August than in January. Before you close on a lot in Port Ludlow, on Marrowstone or in the Chimacum valley, we walk it with you and give a written opinion on the things that cost money later: where the water goes in winter, whether the driveway route crosses a wetland or a steep slope, how deep the hardpan is for a foundation, what the drainage and utility trenching runs will look like, and which permit office you will deal with, Jefferson County Department of Community Development or City of Port Townsend Development Services. It is not an engineering report, but it tells you whether you need one.

Response window

Our response time depends on where you are and what else is on the ground that day [VERIFY: typical response window and after-hours policy]. A slide in Port Hadlock is minutes from our shop. Brinnon down US 101 is longer, and a county-wide storm puts everyone in a queue. When you call we tell you honestly where you stand.

How an emergency call goes

1. Call and describe. You call (360) 301-1711, tell us what happened and send photos if you can.
2. We give you a window. An honest arrival time based on location, road conditions and other calls.
3. Load and roll. We bring the excavator, a dump trailer and pumps if water is involved [VERIFY: emergency equipment].
4. Make it safe and passable. Clear the driveway, move water away from the house, cover an open cut.
5. Assess. We tell you what caused it and whether a permanent fix needs a permit, an engineer or both.
6. Permanent repair. Scheduled once the ground allows it, with drainage or a wall as needed.

Equipment we bring

[VERIFY: equipment list — excavator, dump trailer, pumps, lighting for after-dark work]. Tell us on the phone whether a truck and trailer can reach the site, because a blocked driveway changes what we bring.

What it costs in Jefferson County

• Emergency call-out is [YOUR PRICE], which covers travel and the first hour on site [VERIFY: what the call-out fee covers].
• After that, emergency work is billed at [YOUR PRICE] per hour for the machine and operator, plus hauling at [YOUR PRICE] per load.
• A site evaluation before purchase or build is [YOUR PRICE], credited toward the job if you hire us [VERIFY: credit policy].
• Culvert replacement starts from [YOUR PRICE] for a standard driveway crossing.

We give a price before we start, even on an emergency, and we put the permanent repair in writing separately so you can take it to your insurer.

Emergency excavation in Olympic Peninsula soil and rain

The Peninsula gets most of its rain between October and March, and that is when glacial till and clay reach the point where they stop holding a slope. Slides and washouts cluster in the same weeks, usually after a warm rain on saturated ground. The steep lots along Hood Canal, the bluffs around Port Townsend and the cut driveways on Marrowstone see the most of it. Hardpan makes things worse because water runs along its surface instead of soaking in, and it comes out of a cut bank in sheets. Most of the permanent fixes we build are about water: a ditch or curtain drain above the slope, a bigger culvert, a rockery that drains through its face. The best emergency work is the drainage we build the summer before. We cover the whole county; see the service area page, and for the Hood Canal side, our Quilcene and Brinnon page.

Recent jobs

• [VERIFY: recent slide cleanup — town, what was cleared, how fast]
• [VERIFY: recent culvert replacement — town, pipe size, driveway or road]
• [VERIFY: recent site evaluation — town, what it found]

More on our projects page.