Complete civil packages for utility solar near Chatham, VA: 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 Chatham in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
County seat, roughly the middle of the county on US 29. Heavy haul is fine on 29 itself, but the secondary routes east and west toward the solar acreage are narrow with posted bridges, so route surveys and bridge ratings need to happen before the first module truck is scheduled.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Pittsylvania 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.
Pittsylvania is the largest county in Virginia by land area and sits in the Southern Piedmont, a rolling upland of long ridges and narrow stream bottoms draining to the Banister, Sandy, and Dan Rivers, with the Staunton (Roanoke) River and the tail of Smith Mountain Lake forming the northern edge. Most of the uplands are deep red clayey residuum weathered from felsic gneiss, schist, and granite: the Cecil, Pacolet, Appling, and Wedowee series, with sandy loam surface horizons over kaolinitic red or strong brown clay subsoils and thick micaceous saprolite below. Cutting through the Chatham and Danville side of the county is the Dan River Triassic basin, where red mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone produce flatter ground, higher shrink swell clays, and slower internal drainage than the surrounding granitic uplands. Floodplains along the Banister and Dan carry Chewacla and Wehadkee type wet alluvial soils with seasonal high water tables.
Clearing and grubbing pulls a lot of stump and root mat off pine and mixed hardwood, and once the red B horizon is exposed it is one of the most erodible surfaces in the state, so tracking, seeding, and turbidity control on Dan and Banister River crossings are the real schedule drivers, not the dirt volume. Mass grading in the Cecil and Pacolet ground is straightforward to rip but the micaceous saprolite fails compaction if it gets wet, so moisture conditioning and a stone working platform are worth budgeting up front. In the Triassic strip the shale and mudstone slakes in fill and holds trench water, so plan for wider collection trench spoil handling and shoring in the mudstone reaches. Access roads over the deep residuum need geotextile and stone in cut sections; they rut fast in spring on side slopes.
Full detail on the Pittsylvania County market is on the Pittsylvania 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. Yes. Virginia requires a contractor license issued by the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR), Board for Contractors. The relevant tier for utility scale solar civil work is the Class A contractor license, which carries no monetary limit on individual project size or annual revenue. The relevant classification for site work, earthwork, and road work is Highway / Heavy (H/H); the qualified individual sits for a trade exam tied to VDOT specifications. Class A applicants must show net worth of $45,000 or post a $50,000 surety bond, and each classification or specialty held requires its own qualified individual with documented experience. Source read: https://virginiacontractorauthority.com/virginia-contractor-license-types and https://www.kmlawyers.com/virginia-dpor-licensing-requirements-for-construction-contractors/
Construction stormwater. The General Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) Permit for Discharges of Stormwater from Construction Activities, commonly called the Construction General Permit or CGP, codified at 9VAC25-880. It is issued by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) under the State Water Control Board, and is administered locally through Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) authorities. The current reissuance runs July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2029 and applies to land disturbing activities of one acre or more. Sources read: https://www.deq.virginia.gov/water/stormwater/stormwater-construction and https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title9/agency25/chapter880/section70/ 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 qualifying facilities of 1 MW or greater that claim the full investment or production tax credit, so certified payroll is the practical default on Virginia utility scale solar regardless of state law. On top of that, Virginia has its own prevailing wage statute at Code of Virginia section 2.2-4321.3, sometimes called the Little Davis-Bacon Act, administered by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI). The state statute reaches public works contracts of $250,000 or more that are paid in whole or in part with state funds, or contracts with a locality that has adopted a prevailing wage ordinance. Privately owned utility scale solar is generally not a public works contract, so the state statute usually does not attach and the federal IRA requirement is the governing one. Sources read: https://doli.virginia.gov/programs/labor-law/prevailing-wage-law/ and https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title2.2/chapter43/section2.2-4321.3/ 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 Virginia 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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