Complete civil packages for utility solar near Haynes, 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 Haynes in Lee County, Arkansas. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
Small town on US 79 north of Marianna along the corridor toward Forrest City and Interstate 40. Useful as a routing checkpoint for oversize loads coming off the interstate down onto the flats.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Lee 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.
Lee County holds the southern end of Crowley's Ridge around Marianna, where loess capped upland with Memphis and Loring silt loams stands well above the surrounding plain and carries the St. Francis National Forest and Bear Creek Lake. Off the ridge the county is flat Mississippi Alluvial Plain with Sharkey and Alligator backswamp clays and better drained Dundee and Commerce soils on the old levee and point bar ridges. The L'Anguille River, the St. Francis River and Big Creek drain the county, with ditch systems and levee work controlling the rest. That combination puts real relief and dead flat ground within a few miles of each other, which is unusual for east Arkansas.
On the ridge you get erodible loess that stands in cuts when dry and gullies immediately once flow concentrates, so slope length control, check dams, diversion berms and fast cover are the difference between a clean site and repeated rework. Off the ridge it is standard Delta earthwork: shallow strip and grade, clay subgrade that pumps once wet, stone over fabric for all haul roads and pads, and dewatering for trench work. Clearing is light on farm ground and heavy where the job touches ridge timber or bottomland hardwood along the rivers. There is essentially no aggregate on the flats, so price stone off Crowley's Ridge gravel pits or barge delivery, because there is no interstate in the county to make long hauls cheap.
Full detail on the Lee County market is on the Lee 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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