Complete civil packages for utility solar in Polk County, Florida: 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 Polk County, Florida. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Polk carries ten operating Tampa Electric solar plants across Mulberry, Bartow, Lake Wales, Bradley Junction, Bowling Green, and Winter Haven, making it the second densest county in the TECO fleet. Much of that development sits on reclaimed phosphate mining land, which is a distinct civil challenge involving settlement, clay settling areas, and heavy regrading. Polk also hosts Duke Energy Florida's Hines Energy Complex, which keeps the county in play for both utilities. For a civil contractor, Polk is the Florida county where earthwork volume, not just drainage, actually drives the bid.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Polk 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.
Polk County has three distinct grounds. The Lake Wales Ridge runs north to south through Haines City, Lake Wales, Frostproof and Avon Park Bombing Range country as deep excessively drained sand: Astatula, Candler, Tavares, Apopka, Archbold and Paola fine sands, often 80 inches or more of clean sand with no water table in reach and internal drainage straight down to lakes and sinks. West of the ridge is the phosphate district, where Bone Valley ore was mined out of the Hawthorn Group and the surface is now reclaimed overburden, sand tailings and clay settling ponds behind earthen dams. East and south of the ridge is flatwoods with Myakka, Immokalee, Smyrna, Ona and Pomona fine sands over a spodic hardpan. North Polk runs into the Green Swamp with Samsula and Basinger soils and near surface water year round.
On the ridge, clearing is easy and cut and fill balances well, but the sand is single grained and non plastic, so it will not hold a slope, it ruts under haul traffic, and it needs moisture conditioning and confinement to compact. Wind and dust control matter more than sediment control on those sites. On reclaimed phosphate land the controlling issue is what is under you: clay settling areas can hold soft high plasticity clay tens of feet deep with very low strength, so geotechnical borings drive whether a parcel is buildable, whether pile refusal is reachable and how much surcharge or ground improvement is needed. Sand tailings compact well but are variable. Trenching on the ridge is simple and dry with sloughing sidewalls; in the flatwoods and Green Swamp expect dewatering. Access roads on reclaimed ground need geogrid and generous base thickness over soft subgrade.
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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