Complete civil packages for utility solar near Cedar Bluff, MS: 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 Cedar Bluff in Clay County, Mississippi. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
West of West Point on MS 50 near the Tombigbee and the waterway. Prairie and Flatwoods ground with two-lane access, so oversize routing runs back through West Point to US 45.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Clay 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.
Eastern Clay County is Black Prairie developed on the Cretaceous Selma Chalk, a weathered rolling plain of dark calcareous clay. The classic series are Houston, Okolona, Brooksville and Sumter, with Demopolis and Binnsville running shallow to chalk on the knobs and side slopes. These are smectitic Vertisols: alkaline, high in calcium, swelling when wet and cracking deeply when dry. Moving west the county drops into the Flatwoods belt where Kipling and Vaiden clays sit over dense acid clay, then into sandier Coastal Plain uplands. The Tombigbee River and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway form the eastern edge of the county, with Mantachie and Iuka soils on the bottoms.
On prairie clay the two problems are bearing and movement. Chalk residuum can be shallow, so a cut that looks routine hits rock-hard chalk needing a ripper or hammer while the ground two hundred feet away is soft clay, and trenching production swings wildly across a single run. Vertisol shrink-swell means pile design, foundation depth and pavement subgrade cannot be set from one boring, so push for a real boring spread across the array area. The upside is that these clays take lime well, so lime stabilization is often cheaper here than the undercut-and-stone approach the Delta forces on you. Clearing is a genuine line item, a mix of pasture, hardwood fence rows and planted pine, so grubbing and stump disposal volumes are real. Erosion control has to account for high suspended clay that will not drop out in a standard trap: plan longer detention and, where the spec allows it, flocculant.
Full detail on the Clay County market is on the Clay 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. Yes. Commercial civil sitework in Mississippi requires a Commercial Certificate of Responsibility from the Mississippi State Board of Contractors. Mississippi law makes it unlawful to contract or subcontract any portion of a public or private construction project equal to or exceeding $50,000 unless the contractor or subcontractor was duly licensed by the Board as of the date bids were submitted, so the license must be in hand before bid day, not at award. Applicants file a CPA reviewed or audited financial statement and hold the classification that matches the scope, and out of state firms must also be registered with the Mississippi Secretary of State.
Construction stormwater. Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), Environmental Permits Division, issues the Large Construction Storm Water General Permit, permit number MSR10, covering construction that disturbs five or more acres. Coverage is obtained by filing a Large Construction Notice of Intent (LCNOI) at least 30 days before construction starts, with a Certificate of Good Standing from the Mississippi Secretary of State dated within the prior 12 months. The property owner and the prime contractor carry joint and several responsibility for compliance, which puts the SWPPP, inspections, and BMP maintenance squarely on the civil contractor on a solar site. 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 through the Inflation Reduction Act to qualifying projects of 1 MW alternating current and larger when the owner claims the increased credit rate, so certified payroll and apprentice ratio tracking are standard on Mississippi utility-scale solar even on privately owned sites. Mississippi does not layer a state prevailing wage law on top of that for construction contracts, and it is a right to work state, so the wage determination that governs is the federal one written into the EPC contract. Contractors should confirm the specific wage determination and apprenticeship language in each solicitation rather than assuming none applies. 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 Mississippi 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.
Reply in hours, not days.