Complete civil packages for utility solar near Land O' Lakes, FL: 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 Land O' Lakes in Pasco County, Florida. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
US 41 and SR 52 near the Suncoast Parkway in the karst belt, where sinkhole activity is well documented and shallow limestone shows up in utility trenching.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Pasco 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.
Pasco County packs three landscapes into one county. The western third is Gulf Coastal Lowlands with thin sand over shallow limestone, Myakka, EauGallie and Basinger fine sands near the coast and tidal marsh at the shoreline. The center rises onto the southern end of the Brooksville Ridge and the Zephyrhills Gap with Candler, Astatula, Tavares, Sparr, Kendrick and Blichton soils, deep sands on the rises and dense clayey subsoils on the flats. The east side runs into the Green Swamp, the headwater divide for the Withlacoochee, Hillsborough and Peace Rivers, where Samsula and Basinger soils and organic muck sit over a water table at or above the surface for much of the year. Pasco has one of the highest documented sinkhole densities in Florida, driven by thin cover over the Floridan aquifer.
Karst is the first thing to price. Cover collapse features are common enough here that geotechnical investigation, and often ground penetrating radar over pads and pond bottoms, should precede grade setting, and stormwater ponds should not be sited over closed depressions without treatment. Rock depth is erratic in the west and center, so trench and pond excavation need a rock line and, in places, hammer work. In the Green Swamp end the opposite applies: no rock, but saturated organic soils that must be stripped and replaced, near surface water year round, and a very short dry season working window. Palmetto flatwoods grubbing generates high stump volume; ridge sands clear easily but will not hold slope and rut under haul traffic. Base material is close, with limerock coming out of the Brooksville and Withlacoochee corridor just north.
Full detail on the Pasco County market is on the Pasco 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. Contractor licensing in Florida runs through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the Construction Industry Licensing Board. Pure earthwork on a solar site, meaning clearing, grubbing, grading, and access roads, is generally not a separately certified state trade by itself, but once the scope includes underground storm drainage, water, or sewer, Florida requires a Certified Underground Utility and Excavation Contractor license, a Division I state certification. Vertical or structural work such as O and M buildings or structural foundations pulls in a Certified General or Building Contractor license. A state Certified license is valid statewide, while a Registered license is limited to the local jurisdiction that issued it, and out of state firms must qualify their business entity with DBPR and typically also pull a local business tax receipt in the county of work. Confirm the exact classification with DBPR for each specific scope before bidding.
Construction stormwater. NPDES Stormwater Construction Generic Permit, commonly called the CGP, issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under Rule 62-621.300(4), Florida Administrative Code. Coverage is required for construction that disturbs one acre or more, or less than one acre if part of a larger common plan of development, and that discharges to surface waters of the state or to an MS4. A Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan must be prepared before the Notice of Intent is filed, and a complete NOI plus fee must be submitted at least two calendar days before construction begins. Fees are $250 for small construction, one to five acres, and $400 for large construction, five acres or more. Source: https://floridadep.gov/water/stormwater/content/construction-activity 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 at 1 MW AC and larger through the Inflation Reduction Act wage and apprenticeship rules that unlock the full tax credit rate, so certified payroll and registered apprentice ratios are the practical requirement on effectively every utility scale solar job in Florida. There is no state level prevailing wage requirement on top of that. Florida repealed its state prevailing wage law in 1979, and Section 255.0992, Florida Statutes, further prohibits counties, cities, and other local governments from imposing their own wage rate requirements on public works construction contracts. In practice, plan for Davis-Bacon driven certified payroll on the solar work and nothing additional from the state or a county. 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 Florida 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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