Complete civil packages for utility solar in Graham County, Arizona: clearing, mass grading, access roads, collection trenching, SWPPP, fencing, and substation civil.
Backwell is a civil site work general contractor serving utility solar EPCs building in Graham County, Arizona. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Graham County is in the southeastern Arizona cooperative territory, served in part by Graham County Electric Cooperative, which participates in shared cooperative solar and storage purchases through the Arizona G&T system. It is adjacent to Cochise County, where the Apache Solar II project was approved, so crews and equipment can serve both from one yard. No large utility-scale solar project physically sited in Graham County was confirmed in a source read for this page. Treat it as a secondary coverage county for southeastern Arizona work.
The Gila Valley, a broad northwest trending basin between the Pinaleno Mountains, which rise to over 10,700 feet at Mount Graham, and the Gila and Peloncillo ranges to the north and east. The valley floor is Gila River floodplain and terrace, with deep, stratified alluvial soils: Gila loams, Anthony sandy loams, Grabe loams, Glendale silt loams and Pima clay loams on the bottoms, and Guest and similar heavy clays in the slackwater areas. Above the floodplain sit older basin fill and fan piedmont surfaces with gravelly, calcareous soils and caliche development, and the Safford basin also contains lacustrine and playa derived beds, exposed dramatically in the 111 Ranch badlands east of Safford, that are fine grained, saline and sodic. Bajadas coming off the Pinalenos are steep, coarse and boulder loaded. The Gila River is the only significant channel and it flows year round in this reach, with major flash flow contributions from Bonita Creek, the San Simon and the mountain front washes.
Floodplain work means mature mesquite bosque and salt cedar to grub, shallow groundwater, and stratified soils where a sand lens sits under a clay lens and bearing changes over short distances, so boring spacing should be tighter than the flat terrain suggests. Saline and sodic lacustrine material in the Safford basin disperses, piped gullies form fast, and buried concrete and steel need sulfate and chloride testing. The bajada slopes off the Pinalenos deliver large boulders and coarse debris flow material, which is good structural fill but hard on trenchers and requires oversized armored crossings. Caliche in the older fan surfaces governs pile refusal and trench production. Erosion control is more demanding than the low desert because of steep mountain front gradients, monsoon intensity off the Pinalenos, and a live river downstream, so sediment traps, staged clearing and quick stabilization are the practical approach, and any work in or near the Gila channel carries a full Clean Water Act and floodplain permitting sequence.
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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