Complete civil packages for utility solar near Mesquite, NV: 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 Mesquite in Clark County, Nevada. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
Mesquite is on I 15 at the Virgin River, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, with sand and gravel worked from the river terraces. Nickel and Toquop soils are typed near here, so the local ground is exactly the calcic fan remnant and deep sand a contractor will bid. It is the last Nevada service point before Arizona and Utah, which matters for interstate haul planning.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Clark 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.
Clark County covers the Las Vegas, Eldorado, Ivanpah, and Virgin River valleys, framed by the Spring Mountains, Frenchman Mountain, and the Muddy Mountains, so nearly all developable ground is fan piedmont, fan remnant, or sandy basin fill. The Las Vegas series is the valley's namesake silt loam and is known for strongly cemented carbonate, and the Nickel series, typed about 3.5 miles south of Mesquite, is a well drained fan remnant soil with a calcic horizon starting 4 to 25 inches down and weakly to strongly cemented discontinuous hardpan lenses at depth. Arizo, typed near Bunkerville, is the excessively drained sandy skeletal soil of active washes, inset fans, and intermittent stream floodplains with 35 to 85 percent rock fragments, while Tonopah, also typed in Clark County, is the very gravelly sandy loam to extremely gravelly sand of fan remnants and fan piedmonts. Bluepoint fine sand, typed southeast of Sandy Valley, covers the dune and sand sheet areas, and Toquop near Mesquite is deep excessively drained sand on Virgin River terraces. Drainage is by ephemeral wash to Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead or to the Virgin River, and monsoon flash flooding is the dominant hydrologic event.
Caliche is the defining cost item: Las Vegas and Nickel type profiles put cemented carbonate within a few feet of grade, which means trenching and pile installation should be priced with hoe ram, rock teeth, and predrill contingencies rather than standard production rates. Arizo and Tonopah wash and fan gravels give excellent bearing and free draining subgrade for access roads, but they sit in active channels that carry destructive flash flows, so crossings, scour protection, and array setbacks need hydraulic design. Bluepoint and Toquop sand areas are the opposite problem, no bearing and constant blowing, so imported base, geotextile, and aggressive dust control are required, and Clark County dust permitting is enforced. Clearing is creosote and bursage over desert tortoise habitat, so survey, fencing, and translocation windows control the front end of the schedule more than the equipment does.
Full detail on the Clark County market is on the Clark 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. 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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