Future-proofing your ducting: dig once, expand later
The most expensive civils mistake is trenching for today's chargers and digging again next year. Lay spare ducting now while the ground is open.
Last updated 15 August 2026
The single most costly mistake in depot civil works is trenching for the chargers you’re installing today, then trenching all over again when you add more. The ground is only cheap to open once.
The expense is in the digging, not the duct
Trenching, reinstating surfaces and disrupting a working yard are what cost money. The plastic ducting and spare cable capacity you lay while the trench is already open are comparatively cheap. So the economics are lopsided: paying a little more now for spare capacity saves a lot later.
Size the buried infrastructure for the end state
Even if you install only a handful of chargers in phase one, plan the ducting, cable routes and any groundworks for where you want to end up — the full fleet, fully electric. Lay conduit to every future bay, and size cable containment for the eventual load. When you come to add chargers, it becomes a quick electrical connection rather than another excavation.
Coordinate with the grid plan
Future-proofing works best when it lines up with your grid connection plan. If you expect to grow demand, make sure the route from your supply intake has capacity for the cables that growth will need. It’s far cheaper to pull an extra cable through an existing duct than to dig a new run.
This one decision often saves more than any other in the civils budget, and it’s invisible once the surface is reinstated. Plan the groundwork for your destination, not just your starting point — and phase the chargers, not the digging.