Complete civil packages for utility solar near Marshall, MI: 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 Marshall in Calhoun County, Michigan. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
Sits at the I-94 and I-69 interchange, the best heavy haul crossroads in the county for oversize and superload moves in any direction. The Ford BlueOval Battery Park megasite in Marshall Township has already pulled large earthwork and utility crews into the area, which means local aggregate suppliers, truckers, and MDOT permit staff are used to high volume site work.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Calhoun 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.
South central Michigan where the Saginaw lobe till plain meets the Kalamazoo Moraine, cut by the broad outwash valley of the Kalamazoo River and its Battle Creek tributary. Uplands are rolling ground moraine, and the valley floors are flat sand and gravel terraces with kettle depressions. Common mapping includes Kalamazoo loam and Oshtemo sandy loam on the outwash terraces, Riddles and Hillsdale sandy loams on the loamy till, Boyer and Spinks on gravelly kames and sandy outwash, Gilford and Sebewa in wet swales, and Houghton and Adrian muck in the closed kettles and river bottoms. The Kalamazoo River and Battle Creek floodplains carry a shallow water table, and the county has a dense legal drain network through the farmed till plain.
On the outwash the ground is a contractor's friend: free draining, strips clean, trenches without shoring problems in most sections, and gravel is available on site or within a few miles, though cobble in the Boyer and Kalamazoo gravels can cause pile refusal and slow rock wheel trenching. The muck kettles and river bottom organics are the real cost, they need undercut and granular replacement or they will not hold an access road, and they should be located in geotech before the road alignment is set. Sandy cut slopes ravel rather than gully, so seed and blanket early and pair basins with infiltration because the outwash will take water fast.
Full detail on the Calhoun County market is on the Calhoun 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. Michigan does not issue a statewide general contractor or commercial building license. LARA licenses residential builders and maintenance and alteration contractors for residential work only, so commercial civil sitework, earthwork, grading, and access road construction do not require a state contractor license. Specialty trades that do require state licenses include electrical, mechanical, and plumbing, which matters for the electrical scope on a solar site. Local units of government and some counties require contractor registration or permits, and contractors performing state funded public work must register with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
Construction stormwater. Construction stormwater in Michigan is administered by the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), Water Resources Division, under the NPDES program paired with Part 91 Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control of NREPA. Any earth change disturbing one acre or more with a point source discharge to waters of the state requires NPDES coverage. Sites disturbing one to five acres receive automatic Permit by Rule coverage once a Part 91 SESC permit is issued by the county or municipal enforcing agency. Sites disturbing five acres or more, which is every utility solar site, must obtain the Part 91 SESC permit and then submit a Notice of Coverage (NOC) application to EGLE Water Resources Division with the approved SESC plan, site location map, and fee. A certified storm water operator must inspect the site weekly and within 24 hours of a rain event that produces a discharge. Backwell carries the SWPPP scope, installs and maintains the controls, keeps the inspection log, and closes the permit out with final stabilization.
Prevailing wage. Federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship requirements apply to solar projects of 1 MW AC and larger that claim the full Inflation Reduction Act credit rate, so certified payroll is standard on Michigan utility solar. On top of that, Michigan reinstated a state prevailing wage act, 2023 PA 10, effective February 2024 for state funded construction. The larger factor for solar is Public Act 233 of 2023: an applicant for an MPSC siting certificate must pay workers on construction and construction maintenance of the energy facility no less than the prevailing wage and fringe benefit rates determined under 2023 PA 10 or Davis-Bacon, whichever is higher, and must use apprenticeship programs registered with the U.S. Department of Labor. Contractors bidding Michigan solar civil work should assume certified payroll, prevailing wage rates, and registered apprentice ratios. 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 Michigan 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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