Road construction & gravel roads
A road that survives spring instead of washing out in June. Subgrade, base course and shoulder, built in compacted lifts.
Earthworks · Road Building · Site Preparation
We read the ground before we move it.
Roads, pads, driveways and site prep across Red Deer, Rocky View County and Calgary metro. We plan around clay and freeze–thaw so the work still holds up after the first winter.
Owner-operated
Demolition, earthworks & excavation
Red Deer & Calgary Metro
Covenant Earth Works, a trading name of Gerald & Kate Holdings, is an owner-operated earthworks and road construction contractor based in Calgary, Alberta. Founded and operated by Barry Porter and Gerald Tchio, it serves Calgary and the Calgary metro, Red Deer, Rocky View County and central Alberta. Barry brings 25 years of experience across the construction and logging industries: 20 years in construction, and 5 years working with logging equipment, demolition, grading and operations. The company owns an excavator and has access to a grader, dump trucks and other construction equipment as required.
Experience
25 years on the ground
Fleet
Excavators
Structure
Owner-operated
Second operator
Gerald Tchio
01 / The Problem
From the plains to the foothills,
the ground doesn't hold still.
Winter heaves a gravel road six inches and spring takes it back. Clay holds water against a foundation instead of letting it drain away from it. Organic soil worth saving gets buried under spoil nobody tracked, and a year later there is nothing left to build with.
Most of what goes wrong on a site here was decided before the first machine showed up in a soil cut nobody checked, a drainage plan drawn for dry weather, or a schedule that ignored breakup.
So we start underground. Strip topsoil and stockpile it somewhere it can be reused. Bench and cut to drain. Build base in lifts that compact properly. Put culverts where the water goes, not where the drawing said.
And we schedule around the freeze–thaw cycle instead of arguing with it. The work is unglamorous. It is the difference between a road that lasts ten years and one that washes out the first June.
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01
Clay doesn't forgive
Red Deer-area clays hold water and shrink as they dry. A pad graded dead flat to the design is a pad that ponds. We cut a grade that moves water off the site before it moves anything else.
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02
Topsoil is the asset, not the waste
Stripped organic soil is worth more than the dirt beneath it. Nobody trucks it off your property or buries it under spoil.
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03
Freeze–thaw sets the schedule
Roads in this climate fail in spring, not in summer. Base depth, compaction effort and timing decide whether a road survives June. You do not get to choose the weather; you plan around it.
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04
Water goes somewhere
Every site either drains or ponds. Catch basins, swales and culverts get placed with the grade. Bolting them on at the end leaves nowhere to put them.
02 / What We Do
Two kinds of work,
one standard of grade.
Heavy road and earthworks for developers and municipalities, plus site work for homeowners, builders and acreage owners across the corridor.
DIV 01
Heavy Road & Earthworks
Mass earthmoving & site balancing
Cut and fill, stockpile management and haul-and-place. We move the least amount of dirt that still gets you to grade.
Industrial pads & hardstands
A level pad that sheds water instead of ponding, with crane access and truck aprons that hold up under load.
Bulk clearing & grubbing
Clean ground to work on, with the topsoil segregated so you keep it instead of losing it to spoil.
Subgrade & base compaction
GPS machine-control grading and proof-rolling, so you find out about a soft spot before it costs you.
Lease roads & access
In and out of your site all season. Built with ditches and crossings placed as the road goes in, not patched on after.
DIV 02
Residential & Commercial Site Work
Site preparation & rough grade
Raw land turned into ground you can build on. Stripped, benched, drained and shaped before anything gets poured.
Final & fine grading
Finish grade the surveyor, the framer and the landscaper will all sign off on.
Driveways, approaches & culverts
Rural approaches with the right pitch, proper drainage and a crossing that survives a spring melt without washing out.
Drainage & water management
Swales, catch basins, retention and ditching, placed with the grade so water leaves the site instead of sitting against the structure.
Trenching & underground prep
A trench that passes inspection and settles the way it should, handed back ready for the trade that has to work in it.
Pond & watercourse excavation
Ponds and dugouts that hold water on purpose, built to the level you need instead of left to chance.
03 / Selected Work
Ground, finished.
See All Our Work
Residential subdivision
Bulk cut and fill across a growing quarter
Cut and fill across the full pad, topsoil stripped and stockpiled for reuse, then fine grade to lot corners with drainage pulled forward to the frontage.
See the project
Drainage & utilities
Set to grade, not set to hope
Catch basins and service trenches set off the finished grade, backfilled and compacted to spec.
See the project
Road construction
Night shift, finished before the frost
Road prism built and pulled back after dark to keep the schedule ahead of the first freeze.
See the project04 / Recent Clients
Who we've built
for and with.
Three comparable contracts completed in the last three years, with contract value and reference contacts available on request.
Reference contacts for all three contracts are available on request. A short written testimonial from any of these clients, added here in their own words, is worth more than the reference list.
05 / Fleet
Machines, and the people
who run them.
CAT and John Deere equipment, maintained in-house. When something goes down mid-cut, the fix is a trailer ride away, not a rental invoice.
Excavators & backhoes
Trenching, selective excavation, loading and finish work. Hydraulic and backhoe for the tight spots.
Dozers
Bulk push, rough cut, stripping and pushing material where trucks can't profitably run.
Motor graders
Subgrade and base shaping, shoulder pull-back, and the finish grade that ties a road together.
Haul units
Trucked material on and off site, including overburden haul-away and delivered aggregate.
Skid steers & compacts
Tight-access grading, backfill, detail work and small-site cleanup where the big iron won't fit.
Owner-Operated
You talk to the
person digging.
Covenant Earth Works is run by Barry Porter and Gerald Tchio and a small crew. Barry brings Twenty-five years in construction and logging. Twenty on the construction side, five on logging equipment, demolition, grading and operations.
Covenant means a promise. When I tell a customer something, I keep my word, and I don"t cut corners to do it
Barry Porter, Owner-Operator
06 / Service Area
Two zones, one
standard of grade.
Home base is Calgary. We run the corridor out to Red Deer, Rocky View County and central Alberta every week. It's ground we know.
Zone 01
Red Deer & Central Alberta
Home base. Shortest haul
- Home baseCalgary, Alberta
- CountyRocky View County
- MunicipalRed Deer County
- NorthBlackfalds · Sylvan Lake
- WestClive · Delburne · Caroline
- SouthLacombe · Ponoka
- EastInnisfail · Red Bluff
Zone 02
Calgary & Calgary Metro
Regularly served
- CityCalgary
- SouthOkotoks · High River
- NorthAirdrie
- WestCochrane · Bragg Creek
- EastChestermere · Blackfalds
- FoothillsBlack Diamond · Turner Valley
- RuralStavely · De Winton · Longview
Outside both zones? Travel beyond the corridor is available on request.
07 / Straight Answers
Questions we get asked
before the first call.
Straight answers. If yours isn't here, ask it directly. You'll get a straight answer, including when the answer is no.
What does an earthworks contractor do?
An earthworks contractor moves, removes and reshapes soil and rock to prepare land for construction. That includes clearing vegetation, cutting and filling to a design grade, building roads and pads, installing drainage, and finishing grade so the site can be built on.
What area does Covenant Earth Works serve?
Covenant Earth Works is based in Calgary, Alberta and serves Calgary and Calgary metro including Okotoks, Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere and High River, plus Red Deer, Rocky View County, Red Deer County and central Alberta. Travel beyond those areas is available on request.
Who owns Covenant Earth Works?
Covenant Earth Works is owned and operated by Barry Porter, who has 25 years of experience across the construction and logging industries 20 years in construction and 5 years in logging equipment, demolition, grading and operations.
How much equipment does Covenant Earth Works own?
The company owns an excavator and has access to other construction equipment on demand, including a grader and dump trucks. Equipment is maintained in-house.
When is the best time to grade in central Alberta?
Bulk earthworks and road construction are generally scheduled to finish before sustained freezing, and fine grading is completed outside spring thaw. Freeze–thaw conditions mean roads fail in spring rather than summer, so base course depth, compaction and timing determine whether a road survives June.
Do you install drainage and culverts?
Yes. Drainage goes into the grade as construction proceeds: swales, ditching, catch basins and retention, with culverts sized for actual flow. Catch basin inverts are set from finished grade rather than raw grade so they catch what they're meant to.
Do you work on residential acreage?
Yes. Residential and commercial site work includes site preparation, rough and fine grading, driveways and approaches, culverts, drainage, trenching and pond excavation.
Do you pour concrete or lay asphalt?
No. Covenant Earth Works is an earthworks and site-work contractor. It does not pour concrete, lay asphalt, frame buildings or run utility installation crews, though it works alongside those trades and is usually scheduled earlier than they are.
How does the quote process work?
Send the location, scope and timing through the quote form. Covenant Earth Works calls back, walks the site for anything worth pricing properly, then issues a written quote with scope, price and schedule.
How much does site preparation or road building cost?
It depends on volume, access and what you hit underground, so we don't publish numbers. What we do is walk the site, measure the cut and fill, and put a written price and schedule on it. If a fixed budget matters more than the spec, say so up front. We can often phase the work to fit it.
How soon can you start, and how long will it take?
Both depend on where we are in the season and how big the job is. Winter suits bulk earthworks. Frozen ground is stable and compaction fights you less. Fine grading and drainage want to happen outside the thaw. We give you our real availability up front rather than committing to a date we can't hold.
Get Started
You've had a quote before.
Did anyone look at the ground first?
Most earthworks problems get decided before the first machine shows up. Someone skipped a soil cut, drew drainage for dry weather, or set a schedule that ignored spring breakup. Tell us what you're building and we'll tell you what we find.