Complete civil packages for utility solar in Gonzales County, Texas: 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 Gonzales County, Texas. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Gonzales County holds the single largest Texas solar project reported to be finishing inside this window. Industrial Info Resources identifies Enbridge's 600 MW Clear Ford Creek solar project in Gonzales County as the largest of the 37 utility-scale Texas solar projects it is tracking, already under construction and expected online in summer 2027. The county sits in the South Central Texas corridor between San Antonio and the Gulf Coast with active transmission capacity. A single 600 MW build of that length carries multi season civil scope rather than a short mobilization.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Gonzales 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.
Gonzales County sits where the Post Oak Savannah meets the inland Coastal Plain, on Tertiary sands and clays of the Carrizo, Queen City and related units, which is also the surface expression of the Eagle Ford play beneath. Uplands are rolling and sandy, with deep sands and sandy loams such as Padina and Silstid, and claypan soils such as Axtell and Crockett where dense clay subsoil sits under a thin sandy surface. The Guadalupe River runs diagonally through the county and the San Marcos River joins it near Gonzales, both with terraces of loamy alluvium and wooded bottoms, with Peach Creek and Sandies Creek draining the eastern side. The high quality near surface sand is why the county hosts large in basin frac sand mining operations.
Clearing is post oak, live oak, mesquite and yaupon thicket, which grubs slowly and produces large volumes of woody debris that has to be chipped, burned or hauled. The sandy surface builds and drains well and is easy to trench, but it is cohesionless, so trench walls need shoring and haul roads rut and wash if not surfaced and maintained. Where the claypan comes up in cuts you get a plastic clay subgrade with very different compaction and drainage behavior than the sand a few feet above it, so investigate depth to the clay before assuming a uniform cut. Erosion control is the biggest exposure on this ground: sandy slopes rill quickly under Central Texas storm intensities, so keep disturbance staged, seed and mulch early, and control concentrated flow. River terrace crossings need floodplain review and armored crossings. Aggregate comes from Central Texas limestone quarries to the northwest rather than locally, though sand is abundant.
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. Texas does not issue a statewide general contractor or general engineering contractor license, so commercial civil sitework requires no state contractor license. Licensing in Texas is trade specific: electrical work is licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, plumbing by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, and sealed design work requires a Texas Professional Engineer registered with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. Cities and counties can require their own contractor registration, bonds and permits, so registration is handled jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Out of state contractors register with the Texas Secretary of State to transact business and should confirm Texas Comptroller franchise tax standing.
Construction stormwater. Construction stormwater in Texas is permitted under the TPDES Construction General Permit, number TXR150000, issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Utility-scale solar sites disturbing five acres or more are large construction activity and require a Notice of Intent, a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, a posted site notice and a Notice of Termination at completion. Sites between one and five acres are small construction activity with a site notice and SWPPP. TCEQ is the delegated permitting authority in Texas, not EPA Region 6. 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 solar facilities of 1 MW AC and larger that claim the full investment or production tax credit, which covers essentially every project on this list. That means Davis-Bacon rates for the county, weekly certified payroll, and qualified apprentice labor hour percentages flowed down to subcontractors. Texas has no state prevailing wage law that reaches privately owned solar projects. Texas Government Code Chapter 2258 requires prevailing wage only on public works contracts let by the state or a political subdivision, with rates set by the awarding public body, so it does not apply to private utility-scale solar. In practice the IRA requirements are the operative wage and recordkeeping driver on Texas solar. 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 Texas 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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