Complete civil packages for utility solar near Spring Hill, 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 Spring Hill in Hernando County, Florida. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
On the coastal side at US 19 and the Suncoast Parkway, where rock is shallow and the water table is high, so utility trenching here almost always carries a rock excavation line.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Hernando 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.
Hernando County is dominated by the Brooksville Ridge, one of the higher and more karstic uplands in peninsular Florida, reaching above 250 feet with almost no surface streams because drainage goes straight down into the limestone. Ridge soils include Candler, Astatula and Tavares deep sands along with Arredondo, Kendrick and Sparr sands over loamy subsoils, and the distinctive Brooksville series, a clayey soil formed in limestone residuum that shrinks and swells. Blichton and Flemington soils with dense clayey subsoils occur on the flatter uplands. West of the ridge the land drops to the Gulf Coastal Lowlands with Lecanto and Homosassa soils over near surface rock and tidal marsh at the coast. Weeki Wachee and Chassahowitzka springs discharge from the Floridan aquifer, and the Withlacoochee River forms the east boundary.
Expect rock. Limestone is shallow and pinnacled across much of the ridge and the western lowlands, so mass grading can move from ripping to hammering to blasting within one pad, and every cut estimate needs borings behind it. That same rock is the county's advantage: limerock base and cement are produced here, so material haul distances are short and structural fill is cheap by Florida standards. The Brooksville clay is the opposite problem from flatwoods sand: it is plastic, it shrinks and swells, it is unsuitable as pad or road subgrade without treatment, and it will not drain. Sinkhole and cover collapse risk is documented across the ridge, so grading plans should avoid concentrating stormwater over closed depressions. On the deep ridge sands, slopes will not stand and haul roads rut, but drainage is essentially free.
Full detail on the Hernando County market is on the Hernando 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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