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Lake, Pond & Excavation Work
Real iron on real central-Illinois jobs.
Build a new recreational, fishing, or farm lake — big-dam construction, watershed shaping, and the earthwork to back it. An owner who's actually on the job, real iron, and a straight price. Mattoon, Charleston & the 60-mile radius.
📞 Call (217) 809-0779 Free EstimateA lake is a pond's bigger brother — more dirt, a bigger watershed, and a dam that has to carry real water. Get the dam wrong and the whole thing fails the first wet spring. We build new lakes from scratch and key the dam in to hold for decades. One owner, real iron, one straight answer.
Brohez Trucking LLC is a Mattoon-based lake and pond builder. We dig new recreational lakes, fishing lakes, and farm lakes — read the lay of the land and the watershed feeding it, shape the basin to real depth, and build the dam in compacted clay lifts with a spillway sized to the water it has to pass. The same skill that builds a sound farm pond, scaled up to a multi-acre lake.
The difference here is simple: you get an owner who's actually on the job, not a salesman who hands it off to a crew you never met. Real local guy, real iron — a Komatsu excavator and a Cat D6N dozer — and a price you can read line by line. We move the earth for you, and we leave the dam locked in so the next big rain doesn't undo the work.
Thinking smaller? A backyard or half-acre water feature is a pond build — we do those too. At the walk we'll tell you straight whether your spot wants a pond or a lake, and size it to the water your land can actually hold.
From a multi-acre fishing lake to a farm reservoir that carries you through a dry summer.
Build a lake from scratch — recreation, fishing, or water supply. We size, shape, and key the dam in for real depth that lasts decades, not seasons.
Dug deep enough — at least 8 to 12 feet in the main basin — so fish don't winterkill and the water stays clean instead of weeding over. Shaped for shoreline access and structure.
Livestock water, irrigation supply, and wildlife habitat at lake scale. Sized to your watershed and built to hold through a dry central-Illinois summer.
The load-bearing part of any lake. Compacted clay lifts, a keyed core, and a principal and emergency spillway sized to pass the watershed safely. Built right, not shortcut.
We read the drainage feeding the site, shape the basin to depth, and grade inlets so the lake fills and holds without silting itself in early.
Brush, trees, and timber cleared off the footprint before the dig so the basin and dam go in clean. Land clearing and the lake, handled by one outfit.
Banks cut to a clean, stable edge, slopes shaped, topsoil returned, riprap where erosion is a risk, and seed down so the lake looks finished — not like a job site.
Big-volume dirt work is the heart of a lake build. Excavator and dozer moving and placing thousands of yards, with good clay going straight into the dam.
A lake is a bigger job than a pond, but the steps don't change — there's just more of each.
We look at the lay of the land, the watershed feeding it, the soil, and the access. Honest go/no-go and rough size before any paper comes out. Free estimate.
Stake the basin and the dam, set elevations for the dam top, spillways, and deepest pool, and confirm what permits the size triggers before dirt moves.
Topsoil and any brush or trees come off the footprint and get stockpiled. The good topsoil goes back on the slopes at the end.
The Komatsu excavator and Cat dozer work the basin to real depth. Good clay goes into the dam; bad material gets hauled or stockpiled out of the way.
Compacted clay lifts, properly keyed in, with principal and emergency spillways sized to the watershed. This is the load-bearing part — we don't shortcut it.
Smooth the basin, shape the shoreline, return the topsoil, place riprap where erosion is a risk, seed the slopes. From there it's between you and the next rain.
A lake is a large, custom earthmoving project — not an off-the-shelf number. What it takes to build yours comes down to your land, not a price list. Here's what actually moves the work up or down:
Surface acres and how deep you go drive the volume of dirt. A two-acre rec lake and a ten-acre fishing lake are very different jobs.
Good clay holds water and keys a dam tight. Sandy stringers or a high water table mean test pits, extra work, and sometimes a liner to make it hold.
A bigger lake needs a taller, longer dam and bigger spillways. This is the load-bearing part of the build and a real share of the cost.
An open spot near the road is quick. A tight, wet, or far-back site — and how far spoil has to be hauled or placed — adds equipment time.
Timber on the footprint has to come off first, and larger lakes are more likely to need IDNR or NPDES filings — both add to the job.
Shaping the shoreline, returning topsoil, riprap where erosion is a risk, grading and seeding so it looks finished, not like a job site.
Every lake is different — that's why we walk your land and give you a straight number, free. Call (217) 809-0779.
Plenty of outfits will quote your lake. Here's what makes building one with Brohez Trucking different.
Levi runs the machine and answers the phone. The man who quotes your lake is the man who digs it — no handoff to a crew you never met.
Mattoon-based, family-owned, working a 60-mile radius. We know Coles County soils, the moraine, and where the clay turns to outwash sand.
A solid 5-star reputation across central Illinois — fair price, hard work, and no surprises. Read them at our reviews page.
A Komatsu excavator and a Cat D6N dozer that show up running and move the kind of dirt a lake takes. See the full equipment lineup.
Full liability and equipment coverage. Certificate of insurance available on request, before any work starts.
An itemized quote you can read line by line — equipment hours, volume moved, materials, permits. No mystery line items, no high-pressure close.
Real iron on real central-Illinois jobs.
There's no hard legal line — most folks call anything over about an acre or two, dug deep with a real dam, a lake. The build is the same skill set scaled up: more dirt to move, a bigger watershed to size for, and a taller, longer dam that has to be keyed and compacted right. We build both, and at the walk we'll tell you whether your spot wants a pond or a lake.
A lake is a large, custom earthmoving project — cost comes down to acreage, depth, soil, the size of the dam, site access, and how much clearing the spot needs. There's no per-acre sticker price that's honest. The real number comes from a walk on your land, and that walk is free. Call (217) 809-0779.
From a couple of acres up to large multi-acre recreational and fishing lakes. The limit is your land, your watershed, and your budget, not our iron — a Komatsu excavator and a Cat D6N dozer move serious dirt. We size the lake to the water your watershed can actually feed and the dam your site can safely carry.
Bigger lakes are more likely to cross permit thresholds than small farm ponds. A larger dam can fall under IL DNR Office of Water Resources dam-safety review, and ground disturbance over one acre requires an IL EPA NPDES filing. We walk the site, tell you exactly what your job needs, and help you line up what's required before any dirt moves.
More dirt and more dam than a pond, so more equipment time — anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months for a large lake, depending on size, soil, weather, and clearing. We give you a real, staged timeline at the estimate, not a guess.
We're a Mattoon-based lake and pond builder serving a 60-mile radius across central Illinois — Charleston, Mattoon, Effingham, Decatur, Champaign, Urbana, Sullivan, Tuscola, Shelbyville, Pana, and Terre Haute, plus everywhere in between. Call to confirm if you're near the edge of the radius.
Brohez Trucking LLC builds lakes and ponds across a 60-mile radius from Mattoon, IL — into Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Shelby, Moultrie, Effingham, Edgar, Clark, Champaign, and Macon counties, plus over the line into Vigo County, Indiana. Pick your town below for local details, or call (217) 809-0779 for a free estimate anywhere in the radius.
Walk it with us. We'll tell you what's reasonable for the spot and what it'll take to build it right. We move the earth for you.
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