Complete civil packages for utility solar in Lyon County, Nevada: 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 Lyon County, Nevada. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Lyon County is one of two counties hosting the Libra Solar Project, a 700 MW solar plus 700 MW storage facility developed by Arevia Power on BLM land. The federal Record of Decision was signed in September 2024, and BLM issued a further decision record on December 15, 2025 approving layout, gen tie, road, and stormwater revisions that clear the way for construction to start in 2026. The project's 24.1 mile gen tie line runs to the existing Fort Churchill substation near Yerington in Lyon County, which puts substantial linear civil work, access road, and pad construction inside county lines. Lyon is also the western terminus of the proposed Greenlink North transmission corridor.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Lyon 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.
Lyon County strings together several distinct basins: Mason Valley and Smith Valley on the Walker River, Dayton Valley on the Carson River, and the Fernley and Silver Springs flats at the west edge of the Lahontan Basin. The Yerington series, typed about 4.5 miles southeast of Yerington, is very deep, well drained loamy fine sand formed in eolian sand and alluvium on sand sheets, plains, and fan remnants, with buried B horizons showing up 30 to 100 centimeters down. Northern Lyon shares the Churchill County Area mapping, so Lahontan and Parran lacustrine and playa soils carry across the county line around Silver Springs and Fernley. Bounding ranges are the Singatse and Wassuk on the Walker side and the Virginia Range on the north, all shedding coarse, gravelly fans into the valleys, and the Walker and Carson rivers are the only perennial drainage with everything else ephemeral.
On Yerington sand sheets you get fast, cheap excavation and near zero rock, but the material is non cohesive, will not hold a trench wall, and blows badly once the crust is stripped, so stage clearing and keep water trucks and tackifier ahead of the dozers. Buried B horizons and stratified layers mean density varies with depth, so proof roll and expect to overexcavate soft pockets rather than trusting a uniform subgrade. Access roads over sand need geotextile and imported base or they rut out on the first wet week, and where you drop onto the Lahontan lake plain near Silver Springs the problem flips to saline silt with poor wet strength. Erosion control is dominated by wind on the sand and by flash concentration in the ephemeral fan channels off the Singatse and Wassuk fronts.
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. Nevada requires a state contractor license issued by the Nevada State Contractors Board (NSCB) for commercial construction, and the Board sets a monetary limit on each license based on the applicant's financial statement. Commercial civil sitework falls under Classification A, General Engineering, which is broken into subclassifications: the ones that matter for solar civil are A-7 Excavating and Grading, A-12 Excavating, Grading, Trenching and Surfacing, A-16 Paving, A-15 Sewers, Drains and Pipes, and A-17 Lines to Transmit Electricity for gen tie and collection work. Licensure requires a written examination, a background investigation, and a financial responsibility review, and the license must carry a monetary limit high enough for the contract value being bid. Source: https://www.nvcontractorsboard.com/about-us/license-classifications/
Construction stormwater. Nevada's construction stormwater permit is the Stormwater Construction General Permit, permit number NVR100000, issued by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP), Bureau of Water Pollution Control, Stormwater Branch. Coverage is required for any project disturbing one acre or more, for smaller projects that are part of a larger common plan of development, and for sub acre projects the Stormwater Branch determines will impact receiving waters within a quarter mile. The operator prepares a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) first, then submits a Notice of Intent (NOI) to obtain coverage before ground disturbance begins. The 2015 version of NVR100000 has been administratively continued while a renewal is drafted. Source: https://ndep.nv.gov/water/water-pollution-control/permitting/stormwater-discharge-permits/construction-sites-greater-than-1-acre 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 rules apply through the Inflation Reduction Act to projects of 1 MW alternating current and above that claim the increased investment or production tax credit, and that covers essentially every utility-scale solar job in Nevada. On top of that, Nevada has its own wage floor for renewable energy projects that take the state partial tax abatement under NRS 701A.300 to 701A.390: NRS 701A.365 requires that the average hourly wage paid to employees working on construction of the facility, excluding management and administrative staff, be at least 175 percent of the average statewide hourly wage as set by the Employment Security Division of DETR each July 1, and that workers be offered a health insurance plan with a dependent coverage option. DETR publishes the applicable green energy wage figure annually. Separately, NRS Chapter 338 prevailing wage applies to public works contracts awarded by state and local public bodies, which is a different track from privately owned solar generation. Sources: https://law.justia.com/codes/nevada/chapter-701a/ and https://www.energy.nv.gov/siteassets/content/programs/Renewable_Energy_Tax_Abatements_Requirements__2.pdf and https://www.nevadaworkforce.com/_docs/Green-Wage/2024_Green_Energy_Tax_Abatement.pdf 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 Nevada 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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