Complete civil packages for utility solar near Earle, 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 Earle in Crittenden County, Arkansas. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
On US 64 with a rail line through town, in the middle of the county farm ground west of the interstate. Haul routes run US 64 east to I-55 or west toward Forrest City and I-40.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Crittenden 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.
Crittenden County is Mississippi Alluvial Plain directly across the river from Memphis, sitting near 200 to 220 feet with essentially no natural grade. Backswamp areas carry Sharkey and Alligator clays, heavy and very slowly permeable, while natural levee and point bar ridges near the river and the old meander scars carry Commerce, Dundee and sandier Crevasse type soils. The Tyronza River, Fifteenmile Bayou, the St. Francis floodway and the Wapanocca bottoms handle drainage, and everything is controlled by the St. Francis Levee District and the Mississippi River mainline levee. The water table is shallow across most of the county and the New Madrid seismic zone influences foundation and liquefaction design here.
Grubbing is limited to timber along the bayous and levee toes, but earthwork moisture control is the entire job: Sharkey clay is workable in a narrow window and unworkable outside it, and there is no free draining material on site to fix it with. Access roads and laydown yards need imported stone over fabric, and the stone is hauled in because there is no rock within the county. Trenching needs active dewatering in most of the county, and trench boxes rather than sloped banks once you get into the sandier levee ridges. Any grading, ditch relocation or outfall near levee district right of way or the floodway needs early coordination because that permitting drives the schedule more than the dirt does.
Full detail on the Crittenden County market is on the Crittenden 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.
Plans, scope, and schedule reviewed and answered promptly.
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