North Port is a drainage project that people happened to build houses on. General Development Corporation dug the canals in the 1950s to make the land dry enough to plat, and today the city operates nearly 80 miles of canal, more than 60 water control structures and a roadside swale in front of almost every house. The Cocoplum Waterway alone runs about 13 miles before it drains into the Myakkahatchee Creek, the waterway also known as the Big Slough, and water off the roughly 196 square mile Big Slough watershed moves down through the city toward the Myakka River and Charlotte Harbor.
A system that size only works if every part of it is open. It is not. The failure is always slow and always the same. Sediment washes in and settles, the bottom rises, grass and volunteer trees root into the new soil and hold more of it, a driveway culvert silts shut, somebody sods across the swale, and the low point stops being the low point. Nothing looks wrong until a tropical system parks over the county for two days and the water has nowhere to be.
We clear ditches, swales and canals with our own equipment, from a single home swale up to a canal over a mile long. We take the tree growth out, dig the accumulated muck back out, and re-cut the bottom to grade. We are also a state licensed aquatic herbicide applicator, so the same crew handles the regrowth that would close it back up in two seasons.
Existing ditches, swales and canals cleaned back to their designed flow line
Equipment sized for a single home swale up to a full community canal
Years of tree and brush growth taken off the banks and out of the bottom
State licensed aquatic herbicide applicator for the initial knockdown and ongoing control
Permitting maps and historical records reviewed before a bucket touches the ground
Free, no obligation estimates for HOAs, CDDs, property managers and homeowners
Two questions come up on almost every North Port job. The first is whose ditch it is. Some of this network is city maintained, and the city works through roughly 30 miles of roadside swale rehabilitation a year, which does not reach every street. Some sits inside association or district responsibility that transferred at turnover, and the culvert under your own driveway is commonly yours. We confirm that before anyone digs, because doing work in city right of way without the right approval turns a drainage job into a code problem.
The second is what the grade is supposed to be. We start at the outfall and work back, because knowing where the water is meant to end up tells you the grade everywhere upstream. Guessing at that is how a drainage problem gets worse instead of better, and on a flat sandy city like this one there is not much fall to play with in the first place.
Timing matters here too. The right month to do this is the dry one. Once the rain starts the sites go soft, access gets destructive, and every board in the county is calling the same crews at the same time.
Ditches, swales and canals cut back to their designed flow line
Single home swale up to a canal over a mile long
Years of tree, palmetto and brush growth taken off banks and out of the bottom
Blocked, crushed and silted driveway culverts dealt with
State licensed aquatic herbicide applicator for the regrowth
Ownership and permitting confirmed before a bucket touches the ground
Why Your Stormwater System Stopped Working
Most systems we get called out to look at failed the same slow way. Sediment washes in and settles. The bottom rises a little at a time until the low point is no longer the low point. Grass, cattails and volunteer trees root into that new soil and hold even more of it in place. A driveway culvert silts shut, or was never put in. Sod, fill and grass clippings get pushed into the swale year after year.
Any one of those on its own is minor. Stacked up over the years they take a system that was built to move a big rain and turn it into a shallow bowl. That is why the water sat in the yard and would not go anywhere.
Sediment and muck raising the bottom of the ditch
Trees and heavy brush growing in the flow line
Culverts blocked, crushed or missing under driveways
Landscaping, sod and fill placed inside the swale
Banks slumping in and narrowing the channel
How We Get the Flow Back
We start at the outfall and work back from it. Knowing where the water is supposed to end up tells us what the grade has to be everywhere upstream. Then we open the corridor, take the growth off the banks and out of the bottom, and dig the built up sediment with an excavator sized to the site.
Spoil gets hauled off, or spread and graded where you want it. Side slopes get shaped so they hold instead of sliding back in. Where there is heavy shoreline and aquatic growth we follow the dig with a herbicide program, applied under our state license, so the same growth does not close the channel back up behind us.
Locate the outfall and confirm the intended grade
Clear trees and brush from the banks and flow line
Excavate sediment and re-cut the bottom
Shape and stabilize the side slopes
Treat the regrowth and set a maintenance interval
Boards, Districts and Property Managers
A lot of this work is for HOA and condo boards, community development districts, property managers and municipalities. In most residential communities the developer built the stormwater system under a state environmental resource permit, and once construction was finished that permit and the maintenance obligation with it were transferred to the operating entity named in the permit, usually the association or the district. The plans and the operation and maintenance records are supposed to change hands at the same time.
If your board has never seen those documents, you are not alone. It is worth finding them before anyone moves dirt, because they describe the system you are supposed to have. We do that research as part of the estimate.
We also work for homeowners on a swale that has grown shut and for landowners with an old agricultural ditch. Same job, smaller.
Maintenance Beats One Big Cleanup
A large portion of our drainage work is repeat business, and that is on purpose. Once a system is back at grade, holding it there is a much smaller job than digging it out again. For most communities that means a herbicide pass to keep the growth down and a walk of the trouble spots after the wet season.
It is also the easier number for a board to budget. A small line item every year is simpler to approve than an emergency dig out in the days after a storm.
Why ACI
Why Boards and Managers Call Us for Drainage Work
We own our equipment, so the machine that shows up is the one that fits your site instead of whatever the rental yard had that week. That ranges from a mini excavator that works between a house and a fence line up to iron that handles a full community canal.
We are also a state licensed aquatic herbicide applicator, which not every excavating outfit carries. One company handles the dig and the vegetation control, so there is nobody to point a finger at when the growth comes back.
ISA Certified Arborist on staff
State Licensed Aquatic Herbicide Applicator
Many miles of canals restored and maintained by us
Workers compensation and general liability insurance carried
23 years working Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee Counties land and water
4.9 stars from 142 Google reviews
Uniformed crew, clean lettered trucks, site cleaned up at the end
Every photo on this page is an ACI job. No stock images.
From Google
What Customers Say
4.9 stars from 142 Google reviews.
What a great company. Adam and his team do an amazing job. We had a weir that our HOA manages and has to keep clean for storm water flow. Adam came, walked the whole area and gave us an assessment of what needed to be done. He turned around a proposal within 48 hours, and a time line to get started. CJ his foreman arrived at the stated time and got to work. We were amazed at how hard they worked each day. They were able to finish a day ahead of schedule. Very pleased and would recommend Adam and his team to anyone needing his services.
Why did my house almost flood if the system was designed for it?
Because the system that was permitted and the system you have today are usually two different things. Sediment, tree growth and blocked culverts shrink the capacity a little at a time. The design may have been fine. The condition is what failed. We measure what is out there now against what was intended and show you the gap.
Is the ditch my responsibility or the association's?
It depends on the community. In most residential neighborhoods the stormwater permit and its maintenance obligation transferred to the association at turnover. Roadside swales vary by jurisdiction, and in some places the adjoining owner maintains the swale and driveway culvert out front. Your plat, your association documents and your local code will say. We will walk the system with you before anyone spends money.
How long does a cleanout take?
A single residential swale is usually short work. A long canal runs much longer, and we schedule it in sections so the system keeps draining while we work. You get a timeline with the estimate, not after we start.
Are you going to tear up the yard or the common areas?
We pick the smallest machine that can do the work and we plan the access route with you first. Some rutting is normal on soft ground. We regrade the access when we finish and the site gets cleaned up before we leave.
Do you spray, or only dig?
Both. We hold a state aquatic herbicide applicator license. On most jobs the first cleanup is mechanical and herbicide handles the regrowth, which is what keeps the channel open between visits.
Can you get this done before storm season?
Yes, and that is the right time for it. Call early. Once the rain starts the sites go soft and every board in the county wants the same crews. We also run emergency service 24 hours a day if something is already blocked and you have water where it should not be.
My street floods every summer. Is that the city's job or mine?
Some of both, usually. Much of the North Port swale network sits in city right of way, but the culvert under your own driveway is commonly the owner's to keep clear, and inside a platted community the association may have taken the stormwater permit at turnover. We confirm the line before we quote so nobody pays for work that was not theirs and nobody digs where they should not.
Can you get a canal cleaned before hurricane season?
Yes, and that is exactly when it should happen. Dry season means firmer access, less damage getting in, and a channel that is actually open when the first real rain event arrives. Call early. The window fills up fast in this city because there is nearly 80 miles of canal here and the dry season is short.
The ditch behind our community has trees growing in the bottom. Is that a problem?
It is a significant one. Trees in the flow line slow the water, and their roots trap sediment and build the bottom higher every year. That is a channel losing capacity continuously. We take the growth out, dig back to grade, shape the side slopes so they hold, and put a herbicide program behind it so the same growth does not come back in two seasons.
Drainage Ditch & Canal Maintenance Nearby
We work across Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee Counties, and travel further for storm work.
