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Pond & Excavation Work
Real iron on real central-Illinois jobs.
Build a new fishing, swimming, or farm pond — basin, dam, spillway and cleanout. 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 pond that holds water is earthwork plus a dam — and both have to be right, or the whole thing fails the first wet spring. We build new ponds, fix old ones, and pull the silt back out when they go shallow. One owner, one machine, one straight answer.
Brohez Trucking LLC is a Mattoon-based pond builder — the pond diggers and farm pond builders folks across central Illinois reach for when they search "pond diggers near me" and want a real local outfit, not an out-of-town crew. We dig new fishing ponds, swimming ponds, and farm ponds from scratch — 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 so it holds. When an old pond silts in, weeds over, or starts losing water, we handle pond cleanout, dam repair, and full pond restoration to bring it back to the depth it was built for.
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 dirt locked in so the next big rain doesn't undo the work.
When an existing pond has silted in, we clean it out dry — the pond gets drawn down or drained, the bottom firms up, and an excavator pulls the accumulated muck and sediment back to a clean base. Working a dry basin is the only way to see what you're digging, get real depth back instead of a guess, and repair the dam and outlet in the same trip. See pond cleanout for how the job runs.
From a brand-new fishing pond to bringing an old farm pond back to life — the full range of pond construction services under one local outfit.
Build a pond from scratch — fishing, swimming, livestock, or irrigation. We size, shape, and key the dam in for real depth that lasts decades, not seasons.
Recreation ponds dug deep enough — at least 8 feet at the deepest point — so fish don't winterkill and the water stays clean instead of growing over with weeds.
Livestock water, irrigation source, and wildlife habitat. Sized to your land and your watershed, built to hold through a dry central-Illinois summer.
Silt and muck removal on a drawn-down pond to restore lost depth, plus fallen-tree and debris cleanout. We work the basin dry so the pond gets its real depth back.
The dam is the pond. We key it into undisturbed ground, build it up in compacted clay lifts, and cut an emergency spillway sized to the watershed above it so a wet spring doesn't take it out. Already have a dam that's losing water? That's pond dam repair.
A pond fills from the ground above it. We read the drainage area feeding your spot before we shape anything — too little watershed and it never fills, too much and the spillway runs all year. Sizing comes first, dirt second.
Eroded or caved banks re-cut to a clean, stable edge. Slopes shaped, topsoil returned, and seeded so the pond looks finished, not like a job site.
Brush, trees, and timber cleared off the spot before the dig so the basin and dam go in clean. Land clearing and the pond, handled by one outfit.
Not every pond is a farm pond. A good share of our work is for homeowners on five, ten, or forty acres who want water they can see from the house — a fishing hole for the kids, a swimming pond, or just something that finishes the place. As a residential pond builder the job changes in ways that matter: the equipment has to get in and back out without wrecking a finished yard, the spoil usually has nowhere convenient to go, and the pond has to look right from the deck, not just hold water.
So we plan it that way. We walk the access route before we quote it, mat or rock the path where the ground won't carry a loaded truck, and work the spoil into the surrounding grade so you end up with usable yard instead of a pile. Banks get shaped to a slope that's safe to mow and safe to wade, the emergency spillway gets cut to grade so a hard rain leaves through the spillway and not through your dam, and everything disturbed gets seeded before we pull off. Same clay-lined, runoff-fed build as a farm pond — just built to live next to a house. See what a pond costs to build, or call for a free on-site walk.
Whether it's a new fishing pond or a farm-pond cleanout, the steps don't change much.
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 perimeter and the dam. Set elevations for the dam top, the spillway, and the deepest pool, and confirm overflow goes somewhere safe.
Topsoil and any brush or trees come off and get stockpiled. The good topsoil goes back on the slopes at the end.
The Komatsu excavator works 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 a pipe or vegetated spillway 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 pond is a real, 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:
A small farm pond and a multi-acre rec pond are different jobs. More surface and more depth means more dirt to move and more dam to build.
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.
An open spot near the road is quick. A tight, wet, or far-back site — and how far spoil has to be hauled — adds equipment time.
Brush, trees, and timber on the spot have to come off before the dig. A clear field is less work than a wooded draw.
The dam is the load-bearing part. Compacted clay lifts, a keyed core, and a spillway sized to the watershed are where a pond is made or lost.
Shaping the shoreline, returning topsoil, riprap where erosion is a risk, grading and seeding the slopes so it looks finished, not like a job site.
Every pond is different — that's why we walk your land and give you a straight number, free. See what goes into the cost of a pond, or call (217) 809-0779.
Plenty of outfits will quote your pond. Here's what makes building one with Brohez Trucking different.
Levi runs the machine and answers the phone. The man who quotes your pond 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. 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.
A native-clay dam keyed to NRCS-378 spec, real compaction in proper lifts — not just pushed-up dirt — and an engineered spillway sized to your watershed. You build it once and don't fight it again. The value is in the pond that lasts, not the corner-cut.
Verified five-star Google reviews from customers across our excavation, demolition and hauling work in central Illinois. Read them all on our reviews page.
Real iron on real central-Illinois jobs.
It depends on size, depth, soil type, water source, and how easy the spot is to reach with equipment. A small half-acre farm pond is a different job than a multi-acre fishing or swimming pond. The only honest way to a real number is a walk on your land — that's what the free estimate is for. Call (217) 809-0779.
Most small farm and fishing ponds run one to three weeks of equipment time when the weather cooperates. Bigger ponds, wet ground, or a lot of land clearing add time. A pond cleanout on a drawn-down pond is usually quicker — a few days to a week. We give you a real timeline at the estimate.
Late spring through early fall is the sweet spot in central Illinois. The ground is drier, the clay compacts better in the dam, and we can shape and seed the slopes before winter. Winter is good for planning, layout, and permits so you're ready to dig when the ground firms up.
Most rural farm and residential ponds in Coles County and the surrounding counties don't trigger an IL DNR dam permit, and they usually fall under the Clean Water Act farm-pond exemption. If ground disturbance tops one acre, an IL EPA NPDES filing is required. We tell you exactly what your job needs before any dirt moves.
If the basin and dam are sound and the pond has just silted in or grown shallow, a cleanout restores depth for far less than a new build. If the dam leaks badly, the spot was never right, or you want it bigger or in a better spot, a new pond makes more sense. We walk it and tell you straight which way pays off. See our pond cleanout & restoration page for more.
We're a Mattoon-based 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.
Folks search for this a dozen different ways — pond diggers, pond builders, a pond digging company, dam builders, pond excavation contractors. It's the same job under different names, and it's the job we do. Straight answers to the ones we hear most, from a Mattoon outfit working a 60-mile radius.
If you're within about 60 miles of Mattoon, yes. That covers Charleston, Effingham, Decatur, Champaign, Urbana, Sullivan, Tuscola, Arcola, Shelbyville, Pana, Neoga, Greenup, Toledo, Casey, Windsor, Marshall, Paris, Newton, and across the line to Terre Haute. Levi walks the spot himself and gives you the number — no salesman, no hand-off. Call (217) 809-0779.
Brohez Trucking LLC is a Mattoon-based pond digging company — owner-operated, with a Komatsu excavator and a Cat D6N dozer on our own trailers. We dig new ponds, size them to the watershed, and build the dams that hold them. Because we're local, the machine doesn't come with an out-of-town mobilization bill attached to it.
That's the core of it. A pond is excavation plus a dam — the basin gets cut to real depth, the good clay gets set aside for the dam, and the dam goes in as compacted lifts keyed into undisturbed ground. We do the general excavation and grading around it too, so one outfit finishes the whole site.
There aren't many outfits in central Illinois that build ponds as a main line of work rather than a side job. We do. If you're comparing pond building companies, ask each one who runs the machine, whether the dam gets keyed in, and what happens if it seeps the first wet spring. Then call us and ask the same three. (217) 809-0779.
Yes — fishing ponds are a good share of what we dig. The thing that makes a fishing pond work is depth: at least 8 feet at the deepest point so fish don't winterkill and the whole thing doesn't grow over with weeds by August. We shape the basin with that in mind and seed the banks so it looks finished.
Every one — the dam is the pond. It gets keyed into undisturbed ground and built up in compacted clay lifts, and the emergency spillway gets cut to grade beside it and sized to the watershed feeding the pond instead of eyeballed. If the dam on a pond you already own is leaking or slumping, that's pond dam repair, and here's how a leaking dam actually gets fixed.
We do — both the emergency spillway cut into grade beside the dam and the principal outlet through it. A spillway that's too small, too high, or grown over is the reason a lot of dams wash out, so we size it to the watershed feeding the pond instead of eyeballing it. Fixing one that has already failed is spillway repair.
Yes — stormwater retention and detention basins get dug, shaped, and outletted the same way a farm pond does, just sized to a drainage calculation instead of a fishing depth. New basins, silted-in basins brought back to volume, and failing outlet structures. See detention & retention basin construction.
Brohez Trucking LLC builds and restores 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. When folks search "pond diggers near me" or "farm pond builders near me" in central Illinois, we're the local pond builder that actually shows up. Pick your town below for local details, or call (217) 809-0779 for a free estimate anywhere in the radius.
Give us the basics and Levi calls you back the same day with a straight number. Rather talk now? (217) 809-0779 or text us.
Walk it with us. We'll tell you what's reasonable for the spot and what it'll take — new pond or cleanout. We move the earth for you.
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