Complete civil packages for utility solar near Johnson Creek, WI: 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 Johnson Creek in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
Sits on I-94 at a major interchange with a cluster of distribution and warehouse facilities, which makes it the natural laydown and delivery point for anything moving between Madison and Milwaukee.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Jefferson 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.
Jefferson County lies in the heart of the Wisconsin drumlin field, with hundreds of northeast to southwest trending drumlins of dense, calcareous, cobbly loamy till separated by wet interdrumlin swales. The Rock, Crawfish, and Bark Rivers cross the county, Lake Koshkonong sits on the southwest corner, and large organic wetland complexes fill the low ground, with the western edge of the Kettle Moraine touching the far east near Palmyra. Typical soils are Miami, Theresa, Hochheim, and Ringwood loams and silt loams on the drumlins, Fox and Casco soils on outwash terraces along the Rock River, and Houghton and Palms muck with Pella and Sebewa in the swales and marshes. Dolomite is present at moderate depth and Baraboo interval quartzite is quarried at Waterloo in the northwest of the county.
Any alignment running across the drumlin grain means continuous cut and fill with forty to sixty feet of relief between crest and swale, so mass grading quantities are much higher than the flat aerial view suggests. The till holds slopes well and makes good compacted fill, but it is boulder and cobble rich, which means rock rakes on the clearing crew, boulder pockets in trench, and slower going for pile driving and directional bores. The swales carry three to twelve feet of muck that has to be undercut and stoned or matted over, and building sediment traps in that same soft ground is awkward, so plan erosion control around the upland positions.
Full detail on the Jefferson County market is on the Jefferson 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. Wisconsin does not issue a statewide general contractor or commercial building contractor license. Commercial civil sitework is not licensed at the state level: it is controlled through local building and site permits, Department of Safety and Professional Services plan review for buildings and structures, and Department of Natural Resources permits for stormwater and any wetland or waterway work. State credentials from DSPS apply to one and two family dwelling contractors, through the Dwelling Contractor Certification and the Dwelling Contractor Qualifier, and to the separately licensed trades such as electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. For a solar civil package, the practical prequalification gates are insurance, experience modification rate, bonding capacity, and EPC prequalification rather than a state contractor license number. Confirm town, village, and county requirements site by site, since some municipalities require contractor registration or road use and haul route agreements.
Construction stormwater. Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) Construction Site Storm Water Runoff General Permit, storm water associated with land disturbing construction activity, General Permit No. WI-S067831-6, issued by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources under Chapter NR 216, Subchapter III of the Wisconsin Administrative Code. Coverage is required for most construction projects disturbing one or more acres, and the applicant submits a Notice of Intent along with an erosion control plan and a post construction storm water management plan. Backwell carries the SWPPP scope, installs and maintains the controls, keeps the inspection log, and closes the permit out with final stabilization.
Prevailing wage. Wisconsin repealed its own state prevailing wage law. The requirement was eliminated for local government public works projects effective January 1, 2017, and for state and state highway projects effective in 2017, so there is no state prevailing wage schedule applying to private utility scale solar construction in Wisconsin. Federal Davis-Bacon wage determinations still apply through the Inflation Reduction Act prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements for projects of 1 MW alternating current and above that claim the increased investment or production tax credit, and virtually every project in this list is far above that threshold. In practice that means certified payroll, Davis-Bacon classification, and registered apprenticeship participation are contract conditions flowed down by the EPC even though no state law compels them. Project labor agreements or owner specific labor commitments can add union scale requirements on top, so confirm the labor terms in each EPC's subcontract rather than assuming the absence of a state law means open shop. 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 Wisconsin 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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