Services
Grading and drainage set the foundation for everything built on a site. CCE designs plans that pass agency review the first time and hold up through construction.
Grading and drainage design determines how a site moves earth and water — before a single foundation is poured. Done well, it protects the building pad, keeps water off neighboring property, satisfies the reviewing agency, and gives the contractor a plan they can actually build from. Done poorly, it shows up later as standing water, erosion complaints, RFIs during construction, or a plan check that stalls a permit for months. CCE provides grading and drainage design for development, municipal, and infrastructure projects across Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Solano, Lake, and Mendocino Counties — from early feasibility grading through final construction documents and agency approval.
Preliminary and rough grading plans for feasibility and entitlement review
Precise/fine grading plans for construction permitting
Site drainage design, including conveyance, detention, and outfall design
Drainage studies and hydrology calculations supporting agency submittals
Erosion and sediment control planning coordinated with SWPPP requirements
Grading and drainage plan review support for owners, architects, and contractors
Coordination with survey, geotechnical, and utility design to keep the grading plan consistent with the rest of the civil package
North Bay jurisdictions each have their own grading ordinance thresholds, drainage submittal requirements, and stormwater standards, and agency review comments are often where grading plans lose time. A plan built around the reviewing jurisdiction’s actual requirements — not a generic template — moves through plan check faster and needs fewer resubmittals. CCE’s grading and drainage work is developed with the specific agency in mind from the first plan iteration, not adjusted after the first round of comments.
Grading and drainage design is led directly by Andrew Willis, P.E., who has worked civil, environmental, and construction-side projects since 2007, including grading and drainage work carried out prior to founding CCE. That field-facing background — having seen how a grading plan actually performs during construction, not just how it looks on paper — shapes how CCE details a plan: constructible slopes, drainage that won’t require a change order to fix, and calculations that hold up to agency scrutiny.