Complete civil packages for utility solar near Altheimer, AR: 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 Altheimer in Jefferson County, Arkansas. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
East side farm country on the Grand Prairie margin, reached on Arkansas 88, with county roads that need upgrading before module and pile freight moves on them. Nearest interstate access is back through Pine Bluff on I-530.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Jefferson 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.
Jefferson County straddles the Arkansas River, so the ground splits three ways: river bottom, terrace prairie, and the beginning of the Gulf Coastal Plain southwest of Pine Bluff. The bottoms carry Perry clay, which is very deep, poorly drained and very slowly permeable, sitting alongside Portland clay and the better draining Rilla and Hebert natural levee soils formed in reddish silty and loamy alluvium. Northeast toward Altheimer the county picks up the western edge of the Grand Prairie with Stuttgart series soils and their dense silty clay subsoil. Bayou Bartholomew, Plum Bayou and a web of sloughs and oxbows control the drainage, and the Arkansas River levee system defines what you can and cannot touch near the channel.
The split between Perry clay and Rilla loam decides your whole earthwork approach on a single site: the Rilla and Hebert natural levee soils compact and drain well and take an access road cheaply, while Perry clay holds water, heaves, and will not build a stable subgrade without undercut, geogrid, and imported select fill. Clearing is mostly agricultural with hardwood fringe along the bayous and sloughs, and those crossings drive most of the permitting. Trench walls in Perry stand up but the material is unusable as pipe bedding, so plan on bringing bedding stone in and hauling spoil to waste. Erosion control on the silt loams needs cover established fast because slopes are long and flat and sheet flow travels a long way before it finds a bayou.
Full detail on the Jefferson County market is on the Jefferson 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. Arkansas licenses commercial construction through the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board, which sits under the Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing. A Commercial Contractor license is required to bid or perform commercial work at or above the statutory threshold, generally understood to be 50,000 dollars, with separate classifications that cover heavy construction and highway, street and bridge work, which are the classifications that typically apply to solar civil sitework. Applicants must show construction experience, business capability, and financial statements. Verify the exact classification and threshold with the board at labor.arkansas.gov before bidding.
Construction stormwater. Construction General Permit ARR150000, the NPDES construction stormwater general permit issued by the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality, formerly ADEQ. Coverage is required for any land disturbance of one acre or more, and a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan must be developed, implemented, and maintained for the life of construction. A Notice of Intent is filed with DEQ, and large sites of five acres or more require full NOI review rather than automatic coverage. 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 wages apply to utility-scale solar at 1 MW and above through the Inflation Reduction Act wage and apprenticeship requirements, which owners pass down to civil subcontractors through certified payroll obligations. Arkansas has NO state prevailing wage law: Act 1068 of 2017 repealed Ark. Code 22-9-301 through 22-9-315, so state and local public works in Arkansas carry no separate state wage determination. Federally funded work in Arkansas still triggers Davis-Bacon. In practice this means a solar civil contractor in Arkansas needs certified payroll capability for the IRA requirement, not for a state program. 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 Arkansas 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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