Complete civil packages for utility solar in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi: 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 Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Tallahatchie County has an active utility-scale solar construction site right now. Wildwood Solar, a 100 MW project near Webb selling to Entergy Mississippi under a long term agreement, started site preparation in February 2025 and spans about 1,000 acres. Entergy lists Tallahatchie among the counties where it holds solar sites supporting the Amazon data center expansion. Live construction in a county is the clearest signal that EPC contractors are already mobilized and sourcing local civil subcontractors.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Tallahatchie 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.
Tallahatchie straddles the bluff line and the two halves are effectively different jobs. East of the line around Charleston the ground is rolling loess-capped hills over Coastal Plain sand and chert gravel, mapped in Grenada, Loring, Calloway, Memphis and Providence silt loams, with fragipans in Grenada, Loring and Calloway. West of the line around Sumner, Webb and Tutwiler it is Delta floor: Dundee, Dubbs, Bosket and Forestdale on the ridges and Sharkey and Alligator clay in the flats. The Tallahatchie River, Cassidy Bayou and Tippo Bayou drain the county west and south toward Greenwood, and the bluff-hill bottoms carry Falaya, Collins and Waverly soils.
On the hill side this is an erosion job first. Loess over a fragipan gives you cut slopes that seep, subgrade that softens after every rain, and gullies that form in a single event, so stage clearing, keep slope lengths short, and stabilize immediately behind the operation. The offsetting advantage is that chert gravel is produced locally on the hill side, which cuts the base rock haul substantially compared with a pure Delta site. On the Delta side it is flat clay work: light clearing, near-flat grading, undercut and stone for access and pads, and ditch-based erosion control. A site that spans the bluff line gets both problems plus a real drainage transition where hill runoff hits flat ground and drops its sediment load, which is where the sediment basins belong.
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.
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