Complete civil packages for utility solar near Golden Valley, AZ: clearing, mass grading, access roads, collection trenching, SWPPP, fencing, and substation civil.
Backwell contracts complete civil site work packages for utility solar EPCs building near Golden Valley in Mohave County, Arizona. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
Spread out community on US 93 between Kingman and the Colorado River, on the broad alluvial fan below the Cerbat Mountains. US 93 is the heavy haul corridor to Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam bypass, and the fan washes crossing the valley are the main access road design problem.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Mohave County:
Project details come from public filings and reporting and are listed to show where the work is. Backwell is not affiliated with these projects or their developers.
Mojave Desert transition in the far northwest: broad, gravel floored valleys, the Hualapai Valley, Sacramento Valley, Detrital Valley and Big Sandy Valley, between steep block ranges including the Cerbat, Hualapai, Black and Peacock Mountains, with the Colorado River and Lake Mead and Lake Mohave forming the western boundary. Valley fill is coarse, poorly sorted fan alluvium off granitic and volcanic ranges: Arizo very gravelly sands in the active washes, Nickel gravelly soils with strong calcic development on the fan terraces, Cave soils shallow over indurated caliche, Mohave sandy loams on the smoother valley floors, and shallow lithic soils on the pediments. Around Kingman the Precambrian granite of the Cerbat and Hualapai ranges weathers to grus, coarse decomposed granite sand. Drainage is entirely ephemeral outside the Colorado, and Detrital Wash, Sacramento Wash and Truxton Wash carry large, sediment loaded flash flows across broad unconfined fans.
Vegetation is sparse Mojave scrub and Joshua tree, so clearing volume is low, but Joshua tree is protected under the Arizona native plant rules and needs salvage handling. The coarse gravel fan material is excellent road and structural fill and can usually be won onsite, which keeps access road cost down. The problems are hardness and abrasion: caliche under Cave and Nickel soils, cemented gravel, and shallow bedrock on pediments all mean ripping or hammering for trench and pile, and heavy wear on trencher chain and drill tooling. Decomposed granite grades and compacts well but erodes fast and ravels on cut slopes, so flatten slopes and armor with cobble. Wash crossings are the recurring design issue: broad, shallow, shifting braided channels with high bedload argue for wide armored dips and multi barrel crossings instead of a single culvert that will plug. Water for compaction and dust is scarce and expensive, so identify a source and a haul plan before you price earthwork.
Full detail on the Mohave County market is on the Mohave County solar civil page.
We price the package as one scope under one contract, so the EPC has a single point of responsibility for the civil critical path instead of managing separate clearing, earthwork, and utility subcontracts.
Backwell superintendents, project managers, and lead operators run every site. We mobilize company equipment for the core scope and scale each project with leased production fleets, qualified regional subcontractors, and agency-placed field staff, all under Backwell supervision and a single contract.
Contractor licensing. Yes. Arizona requires a contractor license issued by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC). For commercial civil sitework the relevant classification is the commercial A General Engineering license, which covers fixed works, streets and roads, power and utility plants and related infrastructure, and which also carries the scopes of the A-4 through A-19 subclassifications including A-5, excavating, grading and oil surfacing. A contractor may alternatively hold a specific A subclassification such as A-5 rather than the full A. Licensure requires documented trade experience, passing the Business Management exam and the applicable trade exam, and a license bond.
Construction stormwater. AZPDES Construction General Permit (CGP) for Stormwater, issued by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Coverage is required for construction disturbing one acre or more, or less than one acre if part of a larger common plan of development or sale, and it also covers temporary concrete, asphalt and material plants set up exclusively for the permitted project. The operator files a Notice of Intent with ADEQ certifying that a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan has been developed and will be followed. Backwell carries the SWPPP scope, installs and maintains the controls, keeps the inspection log, and closes the permit out with final stabilization.
Prevailing wage. Federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements apply through the Inflation Reduction Act to projects of 1 MW and larger that claim the full investment or production tax credit, so certified payroll is standard on utility-scale solar in Arizona. On top of that, Arizona has no state prevailing wage law for state or locally funded public works, and Arizona statute preempts local governments from adopting their own prevailing wage ordinances. In practice the wage determination governing an Arizona solar site comes from the federal IRA requirement or from the owner or EPC contract, not from a state schedule. Davis-Bacon also applies directly on federally funded or federally assisted work. For projects claiming the full ITC or PTC, Backwell produces Davis-Bacon certified payroll, pays the applicable wage determination, and supports apprenticeship labor-hour compliance.
All Arizona solar civil work or the national utility solar civil page.
Send plans, a scope of work, and the schedule through the form below or call (315) 400-2654. We review the civil package, walk the site if it is at that stage, and return a scoped proposal with a schedule of values, stated fill allowances, and unit rates for overages. A one-page capability statement is available for prequalification files.
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