Excavation & Site Prep in Dufur, Oregon: 2026 Guide

Excavation and Site Prep in High-Desert Wheat Country

Dufur sits in Wasco County high-desert wheat country, south of The Dalles in the dryland farm country east of Mount Hood. Excavation here is dryland dirt work: rolling terrain, firmer high-desert soils than the wet west side, a hard winter freeze, and the demands of an agricultural community. Whether you are prepping a pad for a new shop or home, building a farm access road, clearing land, or running utilities to a rural property, the dirt work has to suit a dry, freeze-prone climate and the heavy equipment that uses these properties.

Cojo Excavation & Asphalt runs excavation and site prep for Dufur and the surrounding high desert from our Willamette Valley base, running east over the Cascades and south from The Dalles. We bring the equipment and the experience to handle dryland and farm ground correctly.

What Excavation Covers in Dufur

Excavation is the work that happens before anything is built or paved. In a high-desert farm setting, the common scopes are:

• Site grading and leveling — Cutting and filling to create a stable, well-draining building pad, shop site, or driveway base on rolling ground.
• Farm and access roads — Building and grading rural access capable of carrying farm equipment and grain trucks.
• Utility trenching — Excavating and backfilling for water, power, septic, and other lines, often over long rural runs, with proper compaction.
• Land clearing — Removing brush, debris, and obstacles from farm and rural acreage.
• Drainage and erosion control — Managing the runoff that does come, plus seasonal snowmelt, on dryland slopes.

The variables that drive scope and cost are in our excavation cost in Oregon and site grading cost in Oregon guides.

Industry Baseline Pricing for Excavation

Excavation is the hardest service to price sight-unseen, because much of the cost is hidden until you dig. The figures below are industry baseline ranges, not quotes. High-desert work with rock, long rural runs, or heavy-load roadbuilding frequently exceeds them.

Industry baseline ranges. Actual cost depends on soil, rock, slope, access, haul-off, and scope.

Scope	Industry Baseline Range
Site grading	$1.50–$4 per square foot
Land clearing (light to moderate)	$1,500–$5,000 per acre
Utility trenching	$10–$25 per linear foot
Drainage / erosion control	$20–$40 per linear foot
Hourly excavator + operator	$150–$300 per hour
Haul-off / disposal	varies by volume and distance

The unknowns in Dufur are rock and the haul. High-desert ground can hide basalt and rock that slow digging, and long rural utility runs add up fast. A site visit is the only honest way to scope it.

Drainage and Erosion in a Dry Climate

It is a mistake to think a dry climate means no water management. Dufur gets less annual rain than the west side, but the rain that falls on bare, sloped dryland can erode quickly, and winter snowmelt adds seasonal runoff. On farm ground, erosion control protects both the work and the soil. We grade to shed water deliberately, set erosion controls on slopes, and design drainage so that the occasional heavy event does not cut channels through a site or undermine a base. This protects anything built on top, including any asphalt paving in Dufur that follows.

Building for Farm Loads

A lot of Dufur excavation supports agriculture, and farm site work has to account for heavy equipment. A farm access road or equipment pad needs a deeper, well-compacted base than a passenger driveway, because grain trucks and tractors will rut and fail a thin section fast. We build the base to the actual load, which is the difference between access that lasts decades and access that needs rebuilding every few years.

Call Before You Dig: 811 and Permits

Every Oregon excavation job starts with an 811 locate. Before any bucket goes in the ground, underground utilities get marked, which protects you, us, and the lines. We handle the locate as standard practice. Larger site work in Wasco County can trigger erosion-control and grading permits, and county thresholds apply to new road approaches. We know the requirements and build the permitting into the plan.

Why Dufur Property Owners Choose Cojo

High-desert and farm excavation is its own discipline, and not every operator builds for the loads or the rural scale out here. We bring the right machines and the judgment to read dryland ground, whether that means handling rock, building a farm road to carry real weight, or setting erosion control on a slope. The run east over the Cascades from our base is routine, and we would rather scope a job accurately than lowball it and hit rock or surprises.

Browse our completed grading and site work on the portfolio page, or learn more about our site prep and grading services across the high desert and valley.