Complete civil packages for utility solar near Albion, NY: 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 Albion in Orleans County, New York. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
County seat on NY 31 and NY 98 with the Erie Canal and the Falls Road Railroad, plus the historic Medina sandstone quarry district. Nearest Thruway access is exit 48 at Batavia, roughly 20 miles south.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Orleans 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.
About as flat as ground gets in New York. The entire county is Lake Ontario plain, falling only gently from the Niagara Escarpment on the south line to bluffs at the lake shore. Silurian Medina Group red sandstone lies at shallow depth through the middle of the county and built the quarry industry at Albion and Medina, with Lockport dolostone capping the escarpment. Soils run Ontario, Hilton and Appleton on the low rises, Lakemont, Canandaigua, Churchville and Alden in the flats, Odessa and Niagara silty clays through the lake sediment belt, and deep Carlisle and Palms muck in the drained swamps near Barre Center and along Oak Orchard Creek. Oak Orchard, Johnson and Marsh creeks run north to the lake at very low gradient through heavily ditched farmland, and the Erie Canal crosses the county on embankment.
Shallow sandstone means trenching can meet rock at three to six feet in the sandstone belt, so plow in of collection cable is not a safe assumption without borings. Everything else on this ground is a water problem: seasonal high water within a foot or two, extensive tile systems, and no grade to shed runoff, so temporary drainage and stabilized haul roads set the schedule more than the earthwork quantities do. Muck pockets require undercut or bridging and will not support loaded equipment. Clearing is light, mostly hedgerow and orchard, though orchard removal produces high stump and root volume that has to be handled and disposed of. Sediment control depends on ditch checks and oversized traps with long detention, since runoff velocity is too low for the fines to drop out on their own.
Full detail on the Orleans County market is on the Orleans 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. New York does not issue a statewide general contractor license for commercial construction. Licensing is handled locally, so individual cities, towns, and counties may require contractor registration or a local license, and a few trades are licensed at the state level, including asbestos handling and crane operation. Separately, contractors and subcontractors performing public work, and work covered by the renewable energy prevailing wage statute, must be registered with the New York State Department of Labor under its statewide contractor registry, which took effect December 30, 2024. Owners and EPCs on solar projects will typically ask for that DOL registration number along with insurance and, where required, bonding.
Construction stormwater. SPDES General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Construction Activity, permit number GP-0-25-001, issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. It took effect January 29, 2025, replacing GP-0-20-001, and runs through January 28, 2030. Coverage is triggered at one acre of soil disturbance, or less if part of a larger common plan, and requires a Notice of Intent plus a SWPPP prepared and implemented under the DEC design manual. Coverage under the prior permit did not carry over automatically, so active sites had to refile. 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 apprenticeship requirements apply through the Inflation Reduction Act to projects of 1 MW AC and larger that claim the full investment or production tax credit, so nearly every utility-scale solar job in New York is certified payroll work. On top of that, New York State has its own requirement: Labor Law Article 8 Section 224-d extends state prevailing wage, or a project labor agreement in lieu of it, to covered renewable energy systems, which New York State Department of Labor enforcement guidance applies to solar projects of 1 MW AC and larger that involve procurement of renewable energy credits by a public entity or a third party acting on its behalf. Because most large New York solar projects sell renewable energy credits to NYSERDA, 224-d is the practical baseline, and state certified payroll plus NYSDOL contractor registration come with it. A separate threshold of greater than five megawatts AC applies to other covered renewable energy systems, so the applicable trigger should be confirmed project by project. 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 New York 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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