Down along the Little Piney Creek, Newburg is about as rural as Phelps County gets — wooded creek bottoms, timbered slopes, long gravel driveways and plenty of acreage. That's exactly the ground MB General Contracting was built for: clearing land, cutting in driveways, moving dirt, fixing drainage and pouring concrete.
Newburg is a small town — roughly 450 people — tucked southwest of Rolla on the Little Piney. From our base in St. James it's a short run down I-44 and out toward the creek, so we're able to get equipment to a Newburg property without a long haul or a big travel bill. Owner-operator Matthew Buhlinger runs the jobs himself, so the person you talk to at the free estimate is the person who shows up with the machine.
Most of the work we do out here is rural site work. Properties around Newburg tend to sit on wooded acreage with a driveway running a long way back off a county or gravel road, and the ground rolls with creek bottom on one side and Ozark slope on the other. Opening a building site, reclaiming overgrown timber, running a solid lane back to a house, keeping water off that lane — those are the calls we get from Newburg, and they're the kind of work we handle every week across Phelps County.
Newburg grew up as a Frisco railroad town, and the country around it still shows why the railroad followed the valley — the Little Piney cut a wide, wooded corridor with rich creek bottoms and steep timbered ground climbing away on both sides. For a property owner that means two things: water and slope. Rain coming off a hillside has to go somewhere, and a driveway or building pad that ignores it won't last a season. The soil runs from creek-bottom silt to the cherty, rocky ground common across the Ozark plateau, and hitting rock changes how a job is dug, graded and priced. We plan Newburg work around that reality instead of fighting it — reading the fall of the land, setting grade so water sheds, and using the right machine for rock and root instead of forcing a small one.
We're a general contractor for dirt, site work and concrete. Here's how each service tends to look on a Newburg property:
Reclaim overgrown, wooded acreage and open a building site or pasture. Our forestry mulcher chews brush, saplings and undergrowth along creek bottoms and slopes without the burn piles. Learn more →
Newburg drives are often long, gravel and steep. We shape, crown and rock lanes so they shed water and stand up to the hill instead of washing out at the first big rain. Learn more →
Building pads, basements, ponds and general dirt work on rolling, sometimes rocky ground. We own the dozers, excavators and skid steers to cut and fill an acreage site cleanly. Learn more →
On creek-bottom and hillside ground, water is the enemy. We install culverts, ditches, swales and pipe to keep runoff off your driveway, out of your yard and away from the house. Learn more →
We pour concrete in-house — driveways, aprons, shop and garage floors, sidewalks and patios — so a rural build has a solid, properly prepped slab under it. Learn more →
Where a Newburg slope needs holding back to level a pad, protect a driveway cut or keep a bank out of the creek bottom, we build walls that manage the grade. Learn more →
Running a new waterline or utility trench back to a home set well off the road on acreage — we dig, lay and backfill the long runs rural properties need. Learn more →
When a line has to cross under a driveway, the creek approach or a stand of trees, we bore it in place instead of trenching through what you want to keep. Learn more →
Rural jobs need a contractor who understands access, drainage and slope — not just a machine. We plan the work so your driveway drains, your site is solid and your property is left clean when we pull out.
Yes. Most Newburg-area work is off gravel and county roads with long private drives running back to the home or building site. We're set up for rural access and bring the equipment out to you.
That's a big part of what we do here. We shape and crown the lane, set the grade so water runs off instead of down the ruts, add culverts or ditches where needed, and rock it so a steep Newburg drive holds up through the wet season. See our driveway grading page for details.
Yes. Our forestry mulcher clears brush, saplings and undergrowth on wooded acreage and creek bottoms, opening up a building site, food plot or pasture. Learn more about land clearing.
Runoff is the number one problem on creek-bottom and hillside ground around Newburg. We install culverts, ditches, swales and pipe to move water off your drive and away from the house. See drainage solutions.
Both. We pour concrete in-house — driveways, aprons, shop and garage floors, sidewalks and patios — and we handle the excavating and site prep that goes underneath it, all with one crew.
Every rural property is different. The main factors are the size of the job, how far back and how steep the access is, whether we hit rock, how much clearing is involved, the distance to haul material, and the materials you choose. We give a free on-site estimate so the number fits your actual ground.
Free, in-person estimates on rural site work, driveways, clearing and concrete.
