Complete civil packages for utility solar near Mamou, 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 Mamou in Evangeline Parish, Louisiana. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
On LA 13 and LA 104 about 12 miles southwest of Ville Platte, in the heart of the rice and crawfish prairie where the Crowley and Mamou claypan soils dominate. Flat state highway access, and I-10 is roughly 30 miles south through Eunice and Crowley.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Evangeline 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.
Evangeline is a transition parish. The southern half is Prairie Terrace coastal prairie: extremely flat Pleistocene fluviomarine terrace with Crowley silt loam as the benchmark soil, somewhat poorly drained with a clayey argillic horizon, very slow permeability, and aquic saturation above the clay from roughly December through April. Mamou, a series established in Evangeline Parish, and Acadia and Frost soils occupy related positions. Northward through Pine Prairie and Turkey Creek the land rises into pine hill uplands with well drained sandy loam coastal plain soils and actual relief. Drainage runs south through Bayou Nezpique, Bayou des Cannes, Bayou Cocodrie, and Bayou Chicot, and the prairie section is heavily engineered rice and crawfish ground with contour levees, irrigation canals, and Chicot aquifer wells.
On the prairie, the claypan means water sits on the surface instead of infiltrating and there is almost no natural fall, so grading tolerances are tight and drainage design is long shallow ditching to a bayou outfall rather than slope. Existing rice contour levees have to be knocked down and the field regraded, and old irrigation wells and canals need proper abandonment. The silty surface over dense clay pumps badly under haul traffic in the wet season, so stone over geotextile on access roads and phased grading with a dry season bias. Trenching is the persistent fight: sidewalls in the clay hold up but the perched water refills the trench, so continuous dewatering and pipe flotation control on shallow runs. Erosion control is sediment and turbidity capture at ditch outfalls. In the northern uplands the job changes completely: real cut and fill, erodible sandy soils, and slope protection becomes the controlling item.
Full detail on the Evangeline Parish market is on the Evangeline 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.
Plans, scope, and schedule reviewed and answered promptly.
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