Complete civil packages for utility solar near Merom, IN: 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 Merom in Sullivan County, Indiana. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
Perched on the Wabash bluff at the Merom Generating Station and Turtle Creek Reservoir, which puts a large existing switchyard and transmission corridor in the county. Approach roads to the plant are already built for coal and heavy plant freight.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Sullivan 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.
Sullivan County is Wabash Lowland country: a broad leveed Wabash River bottom on the west, sandy Pleistocene terraces just inland, and loess mantled uplands on Pennsylvanian sandstone, shale and coal to the east. The coal is the defining feature, with active and reclaimed surface mines around Dugger, Shelburn and Carlisle producing large tracts of regraded spoil and final cut lakes that do not map to natural soil series. Upland soils include Alford, Iva and Ava silt loams, several with fragipans that perch water. Terraces carry Princeton and Ayrshire sands, and the bottoms carry Haymond, Wakeland, Bonnie, Armiesburg and Petrolia, with Turtle Creek Reservoir at Merom as the cooling water body for the generating station.
Three different ground conditions inside one county means the geotech program should follow the landform, not a uniform grid. Reclaimed mine ground gives variable fill depth, buried spoil and highwall lines, differential settlement under racks and roads, and pile refusal in one hole with soft material in the next. Loess uplands cut well and gully fast, so cover and slope drains go in immediately after stripping. Wabash bottom work means floodplain permitting, pad elevation, long access road fills over compressible alluvium, and interior drainage that has to be routed to district ditches and pumps. Sandy terraces grade easily and provide onsite fill but need stone capped haul roads. Where spoil is present, test stormwater for acidity and metals before committing to discharge points.
Full detail on the Sullivan County market is on the Sullivan 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. Indiana does not issue a statewide general contractor or commercial building contractor license. Contractor licensing and registration is handled at the city and county level, so requirements vary by jurisdiction. Larger cities including Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, and South Bend run their own contractor licensing or registration programs, generally requiring a fee, a contractor bond, general liability coverage, and workers compensation, with some jurisdictions also requiring an exam. Many rural solar host counties have no general contractor license at all, but a civil contractor should still expect county road use and haul route agreements, road maintenance bonds, county drainage board coordination on regulated drains and tile, and local building or improvement location permits. Verify the specific city or county requirement before mobilizing rather than assuming a state credential exists.
Construction stormwater. Construction Stormwater General Permit, known as the CSGP, issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, IDEM. It applies to construction activity disturbing one acre or more of total land area, and to smaller areas that are part of a larger common plan of development or sale. As of December 18, 2021 the CSGP replaced the prior program administered under 327 IAC 15-5, commonly called Rule 5. Coverage is obtained by filing a Notice of Intent, or NOI, with IDEM, supported by a stormwater pollution prevention plan. Local soil and water conservation districts and county or municipal MS4 programs typically review and inspect on IDEM's behalf, so a utility-scale solar site will usually deal with both IDEM and the county SWCD. Backwell carries the SWPPP scope, installs and maintains the controls, keeps the inspection log, and closes the permit out with final stabilization.
Prevailing wage. Indiana has no state prevailing wage law. The Indiana Common Construction Wage Act was repealed effective July 1, 2015, and the state has not replaced it, so there is no state level wage determination for public or private work. Federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage still applies to federally funded work, and applies to utility-scale solar through the Inflation Reduction Act labor requirements: projects of 1 MW AC and larger must pay Davis-Bacon prevailing wages and meet registered apprenticeship ratios to claim the full value of the investment or production tax credit. In practice that means nearly every utility-scale solar project in Indiana is built on certified payroll with apprenticeship participation even though the state itself imposes nothing. Owners and EPCs will also often impose their own project labor agreements or workforce commitments on top of the federal requirement. 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 Indiana 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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