Complete civil packages for utility solar in Spotsylvania 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 Spotsylvania County, Virginia. We contract the complete civil package under one agreement, with Backwell superintendents and lead operators on site.
Spotsylvania County holds the Spotsylvania Solar complex, four projects named Pleinmont 1, Pleinmont 2, Richmond, and Highlander totaling 617 MWdc across roughly 6,350 acres with about 3,500 acres developed. It set the template in Virginia for very large multi phase solar civil work and remains a reference point for what a large complex demands in access roads, grading, and stormwater management. The county remains a focus area for data center driven load growth in the Northern Virginia corridor, which keeps generation siting pressure on the region. Note that the project named Richmond here is a project name and is unrelated to the City of Richmond or Richmond County.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Spotsylvania 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.
Spotsylvania County straddles the Fall Line: the western three quarters is eastern Piedmont upland on schist, phyllite, and metavolcanic rock, and the eastern edge around Massaponax and Fredericksburg drops onto Coastal Plain sands and gravels. The Piedmont section lies within the Virginia gold pyrite belt, so the rock is fine grained, foliated, locally sulfidic, and weathers to silty micaceous residuum with thin solum over saprolite. Drainage is to the Rappahannock on the north, the Ni, Po, and Mat headwaters in the middle, and the North Anna and Lake Anna on the southwest boundary. The Spotsylvania Solar Energy Center site, roughly 6,350 acres with about 3,500 acres developed near Post Oak, was characterized as hydrologic soil groups B, C, and D, which is a fair description of the county generally: some free draining ridge ground, a lot of slow and very slow ground on the flats, and NRCS maps wet upland series such as Partlow in this part of the eastern Piedmont.
The C and D flats are the schedule risk. They perch water, stay soft into late spring, and will not support pile rigs or module haulers without stone and matting, so access road and internal road quantities should be built off the hydrologic soil group map, not off an average. Sulfidic rock in the gold pyrite belt means any deep cut or trench spoil should be screened for acid producing material before it is placed in fill or left exposed, because acid drainage from a solar cut is a permit problem that does not go away. Clearing is mostly planted pine and mixed hardwood with heavy stump volume. Erosion control here gets more public and regulatory attention than in most of Virginia because of the scrutiny the existing large solar site drew, so oversize sediment basins, phased clearing limits, and rapid stabilization are the right posture.
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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