Marks Clearing & Grading moves from pipe to curb at KB Home's Magnolia Forest
At the 154-lot community in northeast Raleigh, the company says the handoff from underground utilities to curb is where residential schedules slip, so it keeps pipe, curb and paving crews in-house.
Residential schedules slip at the handoff from pipe to curb, Marks Clearing & Grading says. The company is at that handoff now.
At Magnolia Forest, a 154-lot KB Home community in northeast Raleigh, the company is moving from underground utilities to curb and asphalt. It described the scope on Sept. 1, 2026: more than 26,000 linear feet of storm, water and sanitary utilities, more than 16,000 linear feet of curb, and more than 25,000 square yards of asphalt.
Each step waits on the one before it. Underground work has to be tested and accepted before curb goes in, and curb has to cure before anyone paves. "Each handoff is a place where a project can lose two weeks waiting on a subcontractor to mobilize, or lose a month because an inspection came back short," the company wrote.
KB Home sells the community in two series of single-family homes. KB Home is also one of several national builders the company has named.
The company's answer is to keep pipe, curb and paving crews in-house, on one schedule, under the same superintendents. That way, curb is staged to start the moment a section of underground work is accepted.
About this story
By Sotwire Desk. Based on Marks Clearing & Grading's own announcement, with public records where cited. Erin O'Brien of Marks Clearing & Grading confirmed this account to Sotwire.
Key facts
- Marks Clearing & Grading
- Raleigh, NC
- Projects
- Client confirmed
- Erin O'Brien
- Magnolia Forest, a 154-lot KB Home community in northeast Raleigh
- Two series of single-family homes, sold by KB Home
- Near Interstate 540, U.S. 64 and U.S. 401, close to Forestville Crossing
- More than 26,000 linear feet of storm, water and sanitary utilities
- More than 16,000 linear feet
- More than 25,000 square yards
- Meritage Homes (Avalon, Durham); Toll Brothers, Pulte and Lennar named among its largest customers
- The company did not say what the contract is worth, or when the work finishes
Key events
- Marks Clearing & Grading described its Magnolia Forest scope