Site design and civil works: getting your yard ready for charging
Civil works are often the second-biggest cost after the grid, and poor yard design quietly wastes money. Here's how to lay out a depot, phase the digging, and future-proof the groundwork.
Last updated 15 August 2026
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Once the grid and chargers are decided, the project becomes physical: trenches, ducts, cabling and concrete. Civil works are frequently the second-largest cost after the grid connection, and they’re where good planning saves real money — or where bad planning quietly burns it. The difference is almost always in the design done before anyone lifts a spade. This guide covers how to lay out a charging depot and dig once rather than three times.
Read the yard before you design
Start by mapping three things: where power enters the site, where vehicles actually park and move, and the routes cable would need to run between them. Long cable runs cost money and lose a little power, so chargers ideally sit near the supply and near where vehicles rest. Turning circles, one-way flows and pinch points all shape where a charger can safely go. A layout that ignores how the yard is really used creates daily friction long after the install is forgotten.
Dig once: future-proof the groundwork
The most expensive mistake in depot civils is trenching for today’s chargers, then trenching again next year for more. While the ground is open, laying spare ducting and cabling capacity for where you want to end up is far cheaper than repeating the works. Even if you install only some chargers now, size the buried infrastructure for the full plan. This is the single biggest saving available in the civils budget.
Phase the install without re-doing the civils
Most depots electrify in stages, and that’s sensible — it spreads cost and lets you learn. The trick is to phase the chargers while doing the groundwork once. Put in the ducts, the base and the cable capacity for the end state, then add charge points wave by wave as more vehicles switch. Done this way, each new phase is a quick electrical job, not another round of excavation.
The practical details that matter
Several things are cheap to get right at design time and painful to retrofit: protecting chargers from vehicle strikes with bollards or kerbs; drainage so bases don’t flood; lighting for safe night-time charging; and accessible spacing so cables reach and people can move safely. None of these are glamorous, but each one avoids a recurring operational headache.
What the grant covers
Good news for the budget: the Depot Charging Scheme covers eligible civil works alongside the chargepoints themselves — the trenching, ducting and cabling that get power to the chargers. It does not cover the DNO’s grid reinforcement or the vehicles. That makes it worth designing your civils with the grant in mind, and being application-ready before a window opens. Check eligibility with the Grant Eligibility Checker.
The bottom line
Site design is where quiet money is made or lost. Lay out chargers around how the yard really works, dig once by future-proofing the ducting, phase the chargers rather than the civils, and get the unglamorous details right the first time. Plan the groundwork for where you’re going, not just where you’re starting — the ground is only cheap to open once.
Go deeper — articles in this guide
- 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.
- How to phase a depot install without re-doing the civils Phase the chargers, not the groundwork. Do the trenching and cabling for the end state once, then add charge points wave by wave.
- Where to put chargers: a yard-layout checklist Good charger placement follows how the yard really works — power in, where vehicles park, turning circles and cable runs. A practical checklist.
- What civil works does the Depot Charging Scheme actually cover? The grant covers eligible chargepoints and the civils to install them — trenching, ducting, cabling — but not grid reinforcement or vehicles.
- Protecting chargers from vehicle damage in a busy yard A charger reversed into is a charger out of service. Bollards, kerbs and sensible placement keep expensive units — and your uptime — safe.