Complete civil packages for utility solar in Sabine Parish, Louisiana: clearing, mass grading, access roads, collection trenching, SWPPP, fencing, and substation civil.
Backwell is a civil site work general contractor serving utility solar EPCs building in Sabine Parish, Louisiana. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Sabine Parish in western Louisiana is the site of Hollis Creek Solar, a 200 megawatt project developed by Treaty Oak on roughly 2,300 acres of former timberland, contracted to Meta to serve the Richland Parish data center. Reporting indicated the project was expected to break ground before the end of 2025, which puts the bulk of construction in the 2026 window. Former timberland means heavy clearing, stump removal and erosion control, which is exactly the scope a civil sitework contractor is bid on. The two Treaty Oak projects together were described as bringing about 300 jobs at peak construction.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Sabine 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.
Sabine is western coastal plain upland, rolling to hilly, with the Sabine River and Toledo Bend Reservoir forming the entire western boundary. The parent material is Tertiary Wilcox and Claiborne age loamy and clayey sediment, dissected into ridges and side slopes by a dense dendritic drainage network. Ridge soils are Ruston and Bowie sandy loams, deep and well drained, with Smithdale on the steeper hill slopes where grades can exceed 20 percent. The problem series is Sacul, a moderately well drained soil formed in acid loamy and clayey Claiborne, Jackson, and Wilcox sediment, with a thick clayey argillic horizon, slow permeability, and a seasonal water table within two to four feet of the surface in late winter and spring. Guyton and similar wet soils occupy the narrow drainageways. Cover is commercial loblolly and longleaf pine with hardwood along the creeks.
Timber clearing dominates the front end: cruise and sell the merchantable pine rather than treating it as a disposal cost, and expect large grubbing volumes even though stumps pull easily from the sandy ridges. Unlike the delta parishes there are genuine cut and fill quantities here, which is good news because the site can usually balance and there is local pit run sand and gravel for access roads. The hazards are Sacul and the slopes. Cut slopes in Sacul daylight the clayey argillic and produce seeps and sloughing, so flatten benched cuts and plan for underdrain at the clay contact. Sandy Ruston and Smithdale surfaces rill within one storm of being stripped, so phase the clearing, keep disturbed area small, and get temporary cover down immediately with slope drains and properly sized basins. Trenching is straightforward in the sandy horizons and slow going where the clay subsoil is thick, and rock is not generally an issue.
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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