Aerial view of the pond, fountain and green at Libbie Mill

Civil engineering in Richmond & Central Virginia

What your plan set includes

Most projects need several of these together, and the interactions between them are where the design work really is.

Site, development and construction plans

The engineered plan set a locality reviews: layout, grading, access, parking, drainage and utilities, drawn to the jurisdiction's own ordinance and checklist.

Residential communities

Townhomes, single-family subdivisions, condominiums and apartments. Townhome sites in particular have to fit buildings, parking, fire access, utilities and stormwater onto a tight parcel, so the engineering is resolved together rather than in sequence.

Commercial, industrial and data center sites

Site, grading, stormwater and utility design for commercial and industrial development, including the large-footprint, utility-heavy sites that data centers require.

Stormwater design

Treatment and detention designed for compliance with the Virginia Stormwater Management Handbook — both water quality and water quantity.

Chesapeake Bay Act compliance

Design meeting the additional runoff and buffer requirements that apply to sites inside designated preservation areas.

Sanitary sewer design

Gravity sewer and force main plans, sized and routed for the site and coordinated with the receiving system. Where a site needs a pump station, we determine that it is needed; the station itself is designed by others.

Water system design

Water line plans, looping, sizing and fire flow, coordinated with the locality's utility department.

Floodplain analysis

Delineating the floodplain and determining what it does to a site's developable area, with HEC-RAS modeling, HEC-22 drainage analysis, CLOMR submittals and scour analysis where a site needs them.

Dam failure analysis

The inundation study a site with an upstream impoundment may require before anything can be approved downstream of it.

Construction management

Limited project and construction management, so the thing that gets built matches the thing that was approved.

SWPPP and SWM/BMP inspections

Stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) inspections during construction, and inspections of stormwater management facilities (SWM/BMPs).

Civil engineering for Richmond-area development sites

Civil engineering turns a layout into a coordinated drawing set for local review and construction. Grading, drainage, stormwater treatment and detention, sanitary sewer, water, access and parking are considered against the applicable ordinance and review requirements.

As consulting engineers, we are often the first call before any of that is drawn. An owner asks whether a property can support what they have in mind, and the answer shapes everything that follows.

Our whole approach is aimed at the number of review cycles. We draw for the reviewer who is actually going to open the file — which requires knowing what that particular locality asks for, what it has been asking for lately, and what it will not accept. That knowledge does not come from a code book. It comes from fifty years of filing plans across Central Virginia.

The firm’s 2014 Chesterfield County recognition is included below as historical context. Current service outcomes should be reviewed with the project team.

1972

Year the firm was founded

50+

Years working across the greater Richmond area

Generations of the Lewis family

Licensed Professional Engineers on staff

Projects like yours

Quoted from the categories the firm has worked in across Central Virginia.

Residential

“Our residential neighborhoods include Single Family Subdivisions, Townhomes, Condominiums, and Apartments.”

Office & institutional

“Our office and institutional work include Office Complexes, Churches, Health Care Institutions, Public Schools, Private Schools, and Federal/State and County Government work.”

Commercial

“Our Commercial Projects include Recreation Centers, Private Clubs, Shopping Centers and Mixed-Use Developments.”

See our Richmond-area project work

Site plan and stormwater questions

Can you do a stormwater study before a full site plan?

Yes. We call it a stormwater study. We look at the site and determine roughly what size of stormwater management facility (SWM/BMP, often a pond) it would need to meet the Virginia stormwater management standards for both water quality and water quantity. It is an early answer that often shapes the layout and the budget, before anyone pays for a full plan set.

What is a site plan and when do I need one?

A site plan is the engineered drawing set a locality reviews before it will let you build. It shows the layout, the grading, the drainage and stormwater management, the water and sewer connections, the parking and access, and how all of it meets the ordinance. In practice you need one whenever you are putting up a commercial, industrial, institutional or multi-unit building, or doing anything that materially changes how water moves across a site. If you are not sure whether your project triggers it, call and describe it.

What is Chesapeake Bay Act compliance and does it apply to me?

The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act imposes additional requirements on land in designated preservation areas across eastern Virginia, which covers much of the Richmond metro. If your site falls in one, the design has to control runoff and protect buffers to a stricter standard than the base ordinance. It is a question to answer at concept stage, because it can change what the site will hold. We design to it routinely.

Can you design stormwater management for a Virginia site?

Yes. We design stormwater treatment and detention for compliance with the Virginia Stormwater Management Handbook, including the water-quality and water-quantity requirements, and we handle floodplain and dam-failure analysis where a site needs it. Stormwater is the single most common reason a site plan comes back with comments, so it is worth designing properly the first time.

Who designs the water and sewer connections?

We do. Sanitary sewer and water line plans are core work here — the firm's president has been the principal in charge of that work since the 1980s, and holds a master's degree in sanitary engineering. Where a site needs a pump station, we determine that it is needed; the station itself is designed by others. On most sites the utility design is what determines whether the layout you want is affordable.

Do you work on residential projects as well as commercial?

Yes, and residential is the larger share of our work: single-family subdivisions, townhomes, condominiums and apartments, alongside office complexes, churches, health care institutions, public and private schools, government projects, shopping centers, recreation centers and mixed-use developments.

Send the parcel and the jurisdiction. We will tell you what review will ask for.

Call 804-285-3948 Request an estimate