Venice drains through a system somebody dug. The Intracoastal Waterway was cut straight through and left the oldest part of town as an island reached by bridges, and the ditches and swales behind the mainland subdivisions were laid out to move water off flat, sandy ground. It does not all go the same way. North of Venice Avenue the water is in the Dona and Roberts Bay watershed and works toward Curry Creek and Hatchett Creek. Behind Venice Gardens and South Venice it heads south instead, down Alligator Creek into the Lemon Bay watershed. When those ditches fill in with cattail, torpedograss, willow and years of shed growth, the water stops moving and it sits in the back yards that back onto them.
We clear and maintain ditches, swales and canals across Venice with in house equipment sized for the job, from a rear lot swale up to a canal more than a mile long. Before we dig we pull the permitting maps and the historical data, because the point is to restore the flow the system was designed for, not to invent a new one. We hold a State Licensed Aquatic Herbicide Applicator license for the vegetation side, which matters when the ditch you are treating is a mile upstream of a tidal creek. Most of this work runs on a schedule rather than as a single visit, and a large portion of it is repeat business for the same communities year after year.
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
The tell is standing water. A Venice swale that holds water three days after the rain has stopped is not draining, it is storing. By the time a homeowner is complaining about mosquitoes or a soggy back lawn, the outfall end is usually already blocked and the grade has silted in.
Rear lot ditches are the ones that get forgotten, because nobody drives past them. Those are exactly the ones we find choked when we first walk a Venice community.
Ditch, swale and canal clearing throughout the Venice area
Years of tree growth removed and the accumulated muck dug back out
Aquatic and bank vegetation control under a state license
Cattail, torpedograss and willow knocked back at the outfall
Rear lot and easement ditches nobody has looked at in years
Ongoing maintenance schedules for Venice HOAs and property managers
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.
How often does a Venice ditch need clearing?
More often than most boards budget for. Growth here comes back fast through the summer rain, so a ditch cleared once and then left will be closing in again by the end of the next wet season. Communities that put it on a schedule spend less over five years than the ones that call when it floods.
Are you licensed to spray near the water?
Yes. ACI holds a State Licensed Aquatic Herbicide Applicator license. That matters in Venice because these ditches are not isolated. What goes into one behind Venice Gardens is on its way down Alligator Creek toward Lemon Bay, and what goes into one north of Venice Avenue is heading for Curry Creek and Roberts Bay. The product and the rate have to be right.
Drainage Ditch & Canal Maintenance Nearby
We work across Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee Counties, and travel further for storm work.
