Complete civil packages for utility solar near Leesburg, OH: 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 Leesburg in Highland County, Ohio. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
North end on US 62 and SR 771, the closest town in the county to I-71 and the Wilmington logistics cluster. Best entry point for module and tracker deliveries coming from the north.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Highland 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.
Highland County is Illinoian till plain with a loess cap across the west and center, grading into strongly dissected unglaciated Appalachian escarpment along the east and southeast. The signature soils are Rossmoyne, Avonburg, Clermont, Cincinnati, and Blanchester, and nearly all of them carry a fragipan roughly 18 to 30 inches down that perches water and creates seasonal wetness on ground that looks well drained on a topo map. Around Hillsboro and along Rocky Fork the Silurian and Ordovician limestone comes near surface with karst features, sinkholes, and springs. Drainage runs to Rocky Fork Creek, Paint Creek, and Rattlesnake Creek, with Rocky Fork Lake and Paint Creek Lake as Corps reservoirs downstream.
The fragipan governs everything: cut through it and the perched water shows up in the cut, so access roads and pads should be built on stone fill with underdrains rather than excavated into the pan. Old Illinoian till is weathered, silt and clay rich, and extremely erodible once stripped, so keep disturbed slope lengths short, run diversions above every cut, and get temporary seeding down fast. Clearing is real work on the dissected east side with mature second growth and brushy draws, and karst near Hillsboro means sinkhole and void risk that should be checked before siting basins, trench, or foundations.
Full detail on the Highland County market is on the Highland 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. Ohio does not issue a statewide general contractor, excavation, or sitework license. The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, under the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Industrial Compliance, licenses only five commercial specialty trades: electrical, HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing, and hydronics. Commercial civil sitework, earthwork, and grading require no state trade license, so qualification comes through local registration where a county or municipality requires it, permits, insurance, and owner or EPC prequalification. Contractors bidding state highway work separately need Ohio Department of Transportation prequalification.
Construction stormwater. Ohio EPA NPDES Construction Storm Water General Permit, currently designated OHC000006, issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Surface Water. Coverage requires a Notice of Intent and a site specific Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan for earth disturbance of one acre or more, including smaller areas that are part of a larger common plan of development, which covers essentially every utility scale 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 wages apply through the Inflation Reduction Act to projects of 1 MW AC and above that claim the full investment or production tax credit, along with the apprenticeship hour requirements, so nearly every utility scale solar site in Ohio is a certified payroll job. On top of that, Ohio has its own prevailing wage law under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4115, administered by the Ohio Department of Commerce, Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration, but it attaches to public improvements financed with public funds and does not automatically apply to privately financed solar. In practice some Ohio solar applicants have voluntarily committed to prevailing wage or labor agreements as part of their OPSB cases, for example the labor agreement reported in the Sloopy Solar case in Clark County, so bidders should read the certificate conditions and the EPC contract, not assume. 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 Ohio 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.
Plans, scope, and schedule reviewed and answered promptly.
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