Complete civil packages for utility solar in Powhatan County, Virginia: 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 Powhatan County, Virginia. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Powhatan County is home to Beldale Solar, a 57 MW company owned project in Dominion Energy Virginia's 764 MW approval package. It sits in the Piedmont west of the Richmond metro, which puts it inside reasonable haul distance of aggregate and equipment supply. Mid size projects in this range are the sweet spot for a single civil package covering clearing, grading, access roads, and stormwater. The project needed local and state permits ahead of construction start.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Powhatan 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.
Powhatan County is eastern Piedmont plateau sloping toward the James River, which forms the entire southern boundary, and the county soil survey groups the ground into three landscape types: soils on flood plains and terraces, soils formed on Triassic basin material, and soils on the Piedmont plateau. The plateau uplands are the familiar Cecil and Appling red clayey residuum weathered from granite and gneiss, with thick saprolite and moderate slopes. The Triassic component is the western edge of the Richmond Basin, red and gray shale, siltstone, sandstone, and the historic Richmond coalfield measures, which produce flatter but wetter ground with clayey, higher shrink swell soils and slow permeability. James River bottoms and the low terraces above them carry loamy alluvium with seasonal high water tables.
Two different jobs on one site is the real risk here: the granite plateau rips and compacts predictably, while the Triassic basin ground holds water, pumps under traffic, and slakes when shale is placed as fill, so soils investigation needs to actually cross the contact rather than sample one end of the parcel. On the basin soils expect winter shutdowns for hauling, undercut and stone in access road subgrade, and shoring in collection trenches where the mudstone will not stand. Historic coal workings and shafts in the eastern county are a legitimate subsurface unknown worth a records check before mass grading. Erosion control drains to the James, so sediment basin design and stabilization timelines get real review.
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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