Complete civil packages for utility solar near New Holland, 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 New Holland in Fayette County, Ohio. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
Just over the line to the east on SR 56 and SR 207, adjacent to the Yellowbud Solar footprint that spans Fayette, Pickaway, and Ross counties. Useful staging for work on the county's east edge.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Fayette 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.
Fayette County is nearly featureless Wisconsinan ground moraine, one of the flattest and most intensively tile drained farm counties in Ohio, with dominant slopes of 0 to 2 percent and very little natural relief. Dominant soils are Crosby, Kokomo, Brookston, Celina, and Miamian, with Westland in the wettest depressions, all of them slow draining and clay rich. Surface water leaves through the headwaters of Paint Creek, Rattlesnake Creek, Sugar Creek, and Deer Creek by way of an engineered county ditch and tile network rather than natural channels. There is no shallow rock, since thick till buries the Silurian limestone well below normal excavation depth.
Clearing is minimal beyond fencerows, so the earthwork is not about volume, it is about creating fall and outlets on ground that has almost none, which means shallow balanced grading tied tightly to ditch invert elevations. Kokomo and Brookston are high plasticity and rut under loaded trucks any time the profile is wet, so plan stone haul roads with geogrid at soft spots and build the schedule around a summer and early fall work window. Collection trench will cut a dense grid of clay and plastic tile, so tile mapping, cut logging, and prompt repair are contract level obligations, and sediment control has to function in flat ditches using basins, skimmers, and check dams.
Full detail on the Fayette County market is on the Fayette 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.
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