Complete civil packages for utility solar near Winamac, 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 Winamac in Pulaski County, Indiana. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
County seat at US 35 and SR 14 with the Tippecanoe River crossing, which is the practical constraint on oversize and superload routing through town. It is the logistics center for the Mammoth Solar central and south phases spread across the county. I-65 is roughly 35 miles west by way of SR 14 to Rensselaer.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Pulaski 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.
Pulaski County lies on the Kankakee Outwash and Lacustrine Plain, with the Tippecanoe River cutting a shallow valley through the center at Winamac. Relief is minimal, roughly 680 to 760 feet, with low sand ridges and old dune caps standing a few feet above wet flats. Ridge soils are droughty sands: Plainfield, Brems, Oshtemo and Morocco. Swales and old marsh basins carry Maumee, Gilford and Rensselaer, plus Houghton and Adrian mucks along the western side toward the old Kankakee marsh. Seasonal high water table sits within one to three feet of grade over most of the wet ground, and nearly every field drains through clay and plastic tile into legal ditches feeding the Tippecanoe.
Clearing is light, mostly row crop with fencerow oak and scattered woodlot, so grubbing volume is small but stump holes in sand backfill poorly and need compacted lifts. Sand mass grades fast and hauls cheap in dry weather, but it has almost no cohesion: haul roads and crane pads pump and rut under loaded trucks unless you geogrid and cap with stone, and stone is an import cost here because the local pits produce sand and pea gravel, not crushed limestone. Collection trenching cuts quickly but sidewalls slough at anything past four feet and you meet groundwater shallow, so plan trench box plus wellpoint or sump dewatering, and expect muck pockets that have to be undercut or bridged. Erosion control is a wind problem more than a sheet flow problem: silt fence performs badly in clean sand, so lean on temporary seed and mulch, tackifier, stone check dams and staged stripping, and locate and repair every tile line you sever before restoration.
Full detail on the Pulaski County market is on the Pulaski 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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