Paving · Grading · Drainage · Parking · Striping · Right of Way

Everything Between the Building and the Street

The Full Scope

Site development engineering for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Grading, drainage, paving, parking layout, striping and right of way design, plus construction inspection and as-built certification from the engineer who drew it.

A Site Gets Built From the Ground Up. We Design Every Layer.

Site development isn’t one service. It’s a sequence, and each step depends on the one under it. Get the grading wrong and the drainage can’t work. Get the drainage wrong and the pavement fails. We design the whole stack, so nothing gets handed between firms and nothing falls between them.

(Rendered as a cross-section: striping on top, down through pavement, base, drainage, subgrade.)

01 · Grading & Finished Grade Elevations

Where every site starts. Finished grade elevations and grading details that make a site buildable and send water where it’s supposed to go. Get this sheet right and everything above it works.

02 · Drainage & Stormwater

Surface drainage improvements, modifications, and upgrades that let new construction happen on a site that couldn’t handle it before. Drainage calculations, SWPPP and Notice of Intent filings where required, and the supporting documentation each agency expects.

03 · Paving & Pavement Design

Pavement sections engineered for the loads they’ll actually carry and the conditions they’ll actually sit in, not a default detail copied from the last job.

04 · Parking Layout

Parking geometry that works for the people using it and clears the agency reviewing it. Stall counts, drive aisles, circulation, and accessible spaces in the right places.

05 · Striping, Markings & Signage

Pavement markings, striping and signage. The layer everyone treats as an afterthought until it’s the reason the site fails inspection.

06 · Right of Way & ADA

Curb and gutter, roadway, sidewalk and ADA compliance. Where your site meets the public street, a different set of standards applies, and we design to them.

Also included where the project calls for it:
drainage repair and restoration, tree protection details, roadway and pavement design, and maintenance of traffic.

The Difference

We've Been Doing This With These Agencies for Years.

Which means your stack depends entirely on your address:

Project

Who had to approve it

Drainage upgrades and right of way design, Miami

City of Miami · FDEP · NOI · MDC-PE · WASD · DRER · DERM

Surface drainage improvements, Miami

City of Miami · FDOT · FDEP · DRER · DERM

Site civil grading, Plantation

City of Plantation · FDEP · BC-RED · DERM

Drainage repair, Palm Beach County

LWDD · PBC · PBC-PW · DERM · SFWMD · FDEP · USACE

Four projects. Four different stacks. Same engineer.

DERM, SFWMD, FDEP, FDOT and the county and municipal public works departments are not interchangeable. What clears review in Plantation is not what clears review in the City of Miami. And all of it moves: drainage and stormwater requirements have been tightening steadily, county by county and at the state level, and a plan drawn to last year’s expectations is a plan that comes back. We track those requirements as they change, and we design to what’s in effect now, for the specific agencies your specific site answers to.

Who Has to Say Yes

The Alphabet Soup Is the Job

State & Federal

FDEP · Florida Department of Environmental Protection
FDOT · Florida Department of Transportation
SFWMD · South Florida Water Management District
USACE · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
NOI · Notice of Intent filings

Miami-Dade

DERM · Department of Environmental Resources Management
DRER · Regulatory and Economic Resources
WASD · Water and Sewer Department
City of Miami Public Works and municipal jurisdictions

Broward

BC-RED · Broward County Resilient Environment Department
Municipal public works departments including Plantation, Lauderdale Lakes and others

Palm Beach

PBC-PW · Palm Beach County Public Works
LWDD · Lake Worth Drainage District
Municipal jurisdictions

Plus the private utilities and property stakeholders that sit on top of all of it.

Clients

Contractors, Owners, Architects, and Other Engineers

Site & Utility Contractors

You need a plan your crew can actually build, an engineer who’ll be there while they build it, and a certification at the end. Not a set of drawings and a voicemail box.

Property & Business Owners

Your lot floods, your parking doesn’t work, or your new construction can’t get approved until the site does. You want somebody who’ll explain what’s actually required, in plain English, and then handle it.

Architects

Your building design is done and the site has to support it. We handle the civil so your project clears review, and we speak the agencies’ language so you don’t have to.

Engineers & Design Firms

Structural and building engineers bring us in when a project needs the civil side handled by someone who lives in these agencies daily. We’ve worked as the civil partner to other licensed PEs.

How It Works

From First Call to Certification

PHASE 01

Scope & Proposal

We review the site, the records, the existing conditions, and which agencies your parcel answers to. You get a fixed-fee proposal with the scope, the assumptions, and the exclusions in writing.

PHASE 02

Notice to Proceed

Contract signed and deposit received. The clock starts.

PHASE 03

Survey & Existing Conditions

Topographic survey of the property and utilities showing existing conditions, coordinated with your surveyor: site dimensions, elevations, structures, utility locations, driveway locations, and public right of way conditions.

PHASE 04

Design & Calculations

Grading, drainage, paving, parking, striping and right of way developed together. Drainage calculations, finished grade elevations, and SWPPP where required, drawn to each stakeholder’s standards from the start.

PHASE 05

Review & Comment Response

Your package is built to the agencies’ expectations before it goes in. Any comments that come back are assessed immediately by the Engineer of Record and resolved, included in the fee.

PHASE 06

Construction Inspection & Certification

CEI onsite inspections during construction, shop drawing review, and as-built engineering certification for every stakeholder who needs it.

Why Us

Why Contractors and Owners Choose SOTEK

The whole site, one engineer

Grading, drainage, paving, parking, striping and right of way in one coordinated set. No handoffs, no gaps, no finger-pointing between consultants.

Years inside these agencies

DERM, SFWMD, FDEP, FDOT, the drainage districts, and the county and municipal departments across three counties. We know what each one needs before we draw it.

Current on the requirements

Drainage and stormwater rules keep tightening, county by county and at the state level. Tracking them is our job, and we design to what’s in effect now.

County by county, not one-size-fits-all

What clears review in Plantation isn’t what clears review in the City of Miami. We design for your jurisdiction, not a generic one.

We're there when it's built

CEI onsite inspections mean the thing in the ground matches the thing on the sheet.

We certify what we designed

As-built and engineering certification from the engineer who drew it and watched it go in.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How fast can plans be ready for review?

For a standard site civil, grading or drainage design, preliminary plans are ready for agency review within 30 business days of Notice to Proceed and receipt of survey. Focused scopes, like a defined repair, can move considerably faster. Tell us your deadline and we’ll tell you honestly what’s possible.

Do I need a survey before you can start?

Yes, and it’s usually the first thing that holds a project up. A topographic survey of the property and utilities showing existing conditions is what the design is built on. It’s typically performed by an independent licensed surveyor, and we coordinate with them directly on dimensions, elevations, structures, utility locations, and right of way conditions.

Do I need a geotechnical report or percolation testing?

Often, yes, depending on the design and the agency. That’s contracted separately with a geotechnical firm, and we’ll tell you at proposal whether your project needs it.

Can you do just the striping and parking layout, or do I have to buy the whole scope?

You can buy what you need. The scope is defined in writing in every proposal. That said, these layers depend on each other, and if the grading or drainage underneath is the actual problem, we'll tell you that before you spend money on the layer above it.

Do you prepare SWPPPs?

Yes. Where the permitting agency requires a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, we prepare it as part of the work.

Who submits the plans?

Submittal itself is typically handled by the owner, the contractor, or a permit runner. What SOTEK does is make sure the package is right before it goes in, because with this many agencies the cost of a wrong submittal is measured in months. Once it’s in review, comments come to the Engineer of Record and get assessed immediately.

Will I get charged extra when an agency asks for changes?

No. Agency-requested revisions are included in the fee.

Why do so many agencies care about my site?

Because water leaves your property. Once it does, it becomes a drainage district’s problem, a county’s problem, a state waterway’s problem, and occasionally a federal one. Each of those has an agency with standards attached. Add the public right of way and the roadway authority joins the list. The number of stakeholders on your project depends entirely on where your site sits and where its water goes.

Do you handle the construction inspection too, or just the design?

Both, when the project calls for it. CEI onsite inspections during construction and as-built certification when it’s done are services we provide, and for site work we strongly recommend them. Design and inspection by the same engineer is how you avoid finding out about a problem two rainy seasons later.

What isn't included?

We put exclusions in writing in every proposal. Typically that means agency fees, construction costs, geotechnical and percolation testing, boundary and topographic surveys unless contracted, landscaping and irrigation design, sprinklers, and utility connection plans outside the defined scope. You’ll never be surprised by an exclusion after the fact.

Which counties do you work in?

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, including the municipal jurisdictions within them.

Tell Us About Your Site.

You’ll get a fixed-fee proposal with the scope, the assumptions, and the exclusions in writing, plus an engineer who knows which agencies your site answers to before the first line is drawn.

Call Christopher directly · (786) 597-7894