Complete civil packages for utility solar in Genesee County, New York: 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 Genesee County, New York. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Genesee County is the anchor of utility-scale solar construction in New York. Cider Solar Farm, at 500 MW across roughly 2,500 acres in the towns of Elba and Oakfield, is the largest solar facility in the state, started major construction in May 2025, and is targeting completion in late 2026. A second facility, the 133 MW Alabama Solar project, has entered the state siting process across the towns of Alabama, Batavia, Oakfield, and Pembroke. Flat agricultural ground, tile-drained fields, and long access road and collector runs make this a civil sitework county first and foremost.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Genesee 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.
Genesee County sits on the Erie-Ontario lake plain north of the Onondaga Escarpment, with a low limestone upland south of it. Relief across the north half is minimal, where glacial Lake Iroquois left silt and clay over calcareous till. Soil surveys map Ontario, Hilton, Honeoye and Lima silt loams on the better drained rises, and Appleton, Kendaia, Lakemont, Canandaigua and Alden in the flats and swales. The Elba and Oakfield mucklands north of Batavia are deep organic Carlisle and Palms soils over marl. Tonawanda Creek, Black Creek and Oak Orchard Creek drain the county with almost no gradient, and the Oak Orchard swamp complex at the Iroquois refuge holds water most of the year.
Clearing and grubbing is light on row crop ground, but the fine textured lake plain soils have a narrow moisture window and a seasonal high water table often within 12 to 18 inches, so haul roads need geotextile and stone rather than compacted native. Mass grading volume is small; the real work is temporary drainage, farm tile relocation and keeping a working platform through spring. Muck pockets have to be undercut or bridged and will not carry equipment. Onondaga limestone is shallow near the escarpment in the south, so collection trenching there should be priced as rock, not plow-in. Erosion control is a sheet flow problem on 1 to 2 percent grades: long flat traps with extended detention, because the silt stays in suspension.
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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