Complete civil packages for utility solar near Calhoun, LA: 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 Calhoun in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
On Interstate 20 and US 80 about 15 miles west of Monroe, in the terrace upland with the LSU AgCenter research station nearby. Direct interstate frontage makes it a clean staging point for work west of the river, and the rolling ground here means balanced site earthwork rather than imported fill.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Ouachita Parish:
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.
The Ouachita River splits the parish into two different construction environments. East of the river is alluvial plain: natural levee ridges of Rilla silt loam, whose type location is in Ouachita Parish, a well drained reddish silty and loamy alluvium on levees of the present and abandoned Arkansas and Red River channels, along with Hebert and Commerce soils, grading back into poorly drained Sharkey and Perry backswamp clays and toward the Macon Ridge terrace on the far eastern edge. West of the river the ground rises into Pleistocene terrace uplands around West Monroe, Calhoun, and the Bayou D Arbonne hills, with Providence and Ruston silt loams and sandy loams over a fragipan and Guyton in the drains. The parish sits over the Monroe Uplift, and surface hydrology runs through Bayou DeSiard, Black Bayou, Bayou Bartholomew, and a managed system of brakes and drainage canals.
Which side of the river a site is on changes the entire earthwork approach. West side: real cut and fill, workable silt loam and sandy loam that compacts well in dry weather, a fragipan that perches water and softens subgrade in winter, erodible slopes that need slope drains and prompt cover, and usable local sand and gravel from terrace pits. East side: flat alluvium with no fall, Sharkey and Perry clay that will not compact wet, imported stone haul roads over geotextile, trench dewatering as a standing cost, and sediment traps rather than slope protection. Clearing on the west is timber and grubbing heavy, on the east it is cropland with fencerow hardwood. On both sides the winter water table drives the schedule more than rainfall totals do.
Full detail on the Ouachita Parish market is on the Ouachita Parish 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. Yes. Louisiana requires a state commercial contractor license issued by the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors (LSLBC) for commercial projects valued at $50,000 or more including labor and materials, per the LSLBC types of licenses page. LSLBC issues licenses by classification, and solar civil sitework is normally performed under the heavy construction and highway, street and bridge construction classifications, with municipal and public works construction used for publicly bid utility work. The exact classification for a given scope should be confirmed with LSLBC before bidding, because Louisiana enforces classification scope, not just the license itself. Out of state contractors qualify through the same LSLBC process and must be registered with the Louisiana Secretary of State.
Construction stormwater. Louisiana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (LPDES) storm water general permit for construction activity, administered by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ). Utility solar sites fall under the large construction general permit, LPDES Permit No. LAR100000, which covers construction disturbing five acres or more; the small construction general permit LAR200000 covers one acre up to five acres. Coverage is obtained by filing a Notice of Intent (form CSW-G) with LDEQ before construction begins, and a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan must be prepared and kept current. Coverage under LAR100000 is not transferable between operators. Backwell carries the SWPPP scope, installs and maintains the controls, keeps the inspection log, and closes the permit out with final stabilization.
Prevailing wage. The governing wage requirement on Louisiana utility solar is federal, not state. Projects above 1 MW that claim the increased Inflation Reduction Act investment or production tax credit must pay Davis-Bacon prevailing wages to all laborers and mechanics of the taxpayer, contractors and subcontractors for construction, alteration or repair, and must meet the registered apprenticeship labor hour requirement. Louisiana has no state prevailing wage statute layered on top of that for private construction, so there is no state schedule to track the way there is in New York or Illinois. Certified payroll on these jobs is therefore driven by the IRA credit requirements and by the EPC's contract terms, and any federally funded or federally assisted work carries Davis-Bacon on its own footing. 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 Louisiana 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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