Excavation and demolition in Breaux Bridge usually starts with a water problem. The town sits on both banks of Bayou Teche, about 20 miles north of New Iberia on Highway 31. The soil is heavy clay over a high water table. Rain does not soak in here, it runs off. Roadside ditches and driveway culverts carry most of what leaves a rural lot. When a ditch silts in or a pipe runs too small, water backs up into yards and driveways. Breaux Bridge streets have gone under after a few hours of hard rain. Fixing that is dirt work.
Elite Excavation Services is based in New Iberia and covers the ring around Breaux Bridge. That means Cecilia, Henderson, Parks, Butte La Rose and the farm ground between them. The number is (337) 201-0594. Work in St. Martin Parish tends to fall into a few kinds of jobs. Crawfish and rice ground needs levees cut, ponds cleaned out and land leveled. Older houses, mobile homes and outbuildings near the historic core need to come down. New lots near the Interstate 10 exit need a house pad, a gravel drive and a pipe at the road. We bring mini excavators, a compact track loader and dump trailers. Estimates are free.
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The oldest part of Breaux Bridge sits on the west bank of Bayou Teche. The Breaux Bridge Historic District went on the National Register in 1995, covering blocks along Bridge, Main and Washington streets. Behind that core stand houses from the 1800s and early 1900s, plus later frame houses, sheds and carports. Taking one down on a narrow downtown lot is a different job than dropping a barn in an open field.
We run compact and mini excavators, so tight lots stay workable without chewing up the yard beside them. Slabs, driveway concrete and old footings come out with the structure, and debris leaves in roll-off containers. Once the hole is clean we backfill and grade the lot so water heads for the ditch. That covers houses, mobile homes, garages, carports, barns and small commercial buildings. See demolition of houses and mobile homes for how the process runs.
Louisiana has notification rules that apply to some demolitions, mostly commercial and multi unit buildings. Testing and any removal of regulated material stay with a licensed abatement firm, and we schedule around it. Permits are the other early step. If the property sits inside city limits, start with Breaux Bridge City Hall and its online permit portal. Outside the city line, St. Martin Parish handles permits from 303 West Port Street in St. Martinville.
The Louisiana legislature named Breaux Bridge the Crawfish Capital of the World in 1959, during the city's centennial. That name came out of the ground around town. Head north toward Cecilia and Arnaudville, or east toward Henderson and the Atchafalaya Basin. Out there the fields turn into shallow ponds and rice cut for crawfish. Those ponds are dirt structures, and they only work if the pan under the water sits level.
Ponds wear out: levees settle, crawfish burrow through them, and silt fills in the low end. We cut new levees and rebuild sections that have failed. We pull silt out of an old pond, level the bottom, and open the levee for a water control structure. Farm and recreational ponds get the same treatment. See crawfish and farm pond digging for how we handle it.
Timing matters on pond ground. Wet ground will not carry a machine, so levee work fits the dry stretch after draining. An early call gives us room to schedule around the weather for next season. We also need a way in for a lowboy trailer and a place to turn around. Field roads soften fast after rain.
Rural St. Martin Parish drains through ditches at the road. There is very little fall in this land and the water table sits high. The ditch is the main path water takes off a property. Any driveway crossing that ditch has to carry water under it, which is the culvert's job. Get the pipe size or elevation wrong and the ditch dams up, flooding the yard uphill.
We set culvert pipe at the flow line of the ditch. Then we backfill, compact around it and build the drive over the top. If the ditch is silted in, we clean it out so the new pipe has an outlet. Yard drainage often comes with the same visit: swales toward the ditch, low spots filled. Details are on the driveway culvert installation page.
Permits depend on where the drive ties in. The City of Breaux Bridge publishes a culvert permit application for work inside city limits. Outside that line, call the St. Martin Parish permit office at (337) 394-9816 first. A connection onto a state route such as Highway 31 or Highway 94 falls under Louisiana DOTD. Ask which office owns your frontage before the pipe goes in.
Growth in Breaux Bridge has pushed north toward the Interstate 10 exit. Newer subdivisions like Parc Ridge went in on what used to be open field. The older parts of town grew the other way, along the bayou. Both create the same kind of work. A raw lot needs the brush knocked back, the stumps pulled and dirt brought in for a pad.
Land clearing here means underbrushing and brush removal with an excavator and a track loader. We dig stumps out, so the root ball leaves the site and the hole gets backfilled. Cleared material and construction debris get hauled off in roll-off containers. On tracts along Bayou Teche and the coulees feeding it, we leave the bank alone. The work stays on buildable ground back from the water.
Gravel is the standard drive out here because it drains and it can be topped back up. We build new drives on a shaped and compacted base, regrade ruts and top drives that have thinned. The run up from New Iberia comes through St. Martinville on Highway 31. If you sit closer to the metro, excavation and demolition in Lafayette covers that side. Halfway up that run, excavation work in St. Martinville covers the middle stretch.
Communities & areas we serve around Breaux Bridge: Downtown Historic District, Parc Ridge, Angelle Estates, Cajun Oaks, Riverview Estates, Cecilia, Henderson, Butte La Rose.
Breaux Bridge ZIP codes served: 70517.
Free, no-obligation estimates throughout St. Martin Parish.
(337) 201-0594
We handle demolition on houses, mobile homes, garages, barns and carports, plus small commercial buildings. We also break out and haul off old concrete slabs and driveways. Free estimates across Acadiana.
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We clear overgrown lots and acreage around New Iberia. That means underbrushing, brush removal, briars, vines and small trees. The vegetation leaves the property in dump trailers or roll-off containers.
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We do dirt work across Acadiana: house pads, site prep, lot grading and yard leveling. Our excavators and track loader move, spread and pack fill to the grade you need. Call for a free estimate.
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We build new gravel driveways and rebuild the ones that have washed out or gone to potholes. Crushed limestone gets shaped with a crown so rain runs to the sides. Free estimates around New Iberia and Acadiana.
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We install driveway culverts and replace crushed or rusted pipe across Acadiana. Every pipe gets set to the ditch grade so water drains instead of backing up. Free estimates on culvert installation in New Iberia and the surrounding parishes.
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Debris removal for piles too heavy to move by hand. We load construction, demolition and storm debris with an excavator or track loader. The load leaves in a roll-off container or dump trailer.
View DetailsA few of the questions we hear most around Breaux Bridge. If yours is not here, call and ask. The person who answers runs the jobs.
A structure that needs to come down, a lot to clear, a pad to build, or a driveway that floods? Call or send the form. We come look at the property, price the job in person, and give you a number that holds. Estimates are free.
Tell us about the job and we’ll get right back to you.
