Complete civil packages for utility solar near Sun Prairie, 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 Sun Prairie in Dane County, Wisconsin. One contract covers clearing through final stabilization, with Backwell field leadership on site.
On US-151 northeast of Madison with active sand and gravel pits on the surrounding moraine and till plain. Strong contractor and trucking base for crews working the eastern Dane drumlin country.
Publicly reported utility-scale solar in and around Dane 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.
Dane County is split by the Johnstown moraine, the terminal edge of the Green Bay Lobe. West of it is unglaciated Driftless country with dissected uplands, steep coulees such as Black Earth Creek, and shallow dolomite and sandstone bedrock around Cross Plains and the Blue Mounds. East of it is a classic drumlin field with the Yahara lake chain of Mendota, Monona, Waubesa, and Kegonsa and large peat wetlands such as Nine Springs and the Waubesa marshes. Dominant soils are deep, dark, loess derived Plano, Dodge, St. Charles, and Batavia silt loams on the prairie plain, Kidder and McHenry loams on the moraine, Dodgeville and Fayette silt loams over dolomite in the west, and Houghton and Palms muck in the marsh basins.
Topsoil is deep and valuable here, often twelve to eighteen inches, so stripping and stockpile volumes are large and topsoil handling should be a real line item rather than an afterthought. The moraine carries boulders and gravel lenses that punish trenchers and pile rigs, while the drumlin flanks force repeated cut and fill if the alignment runs across the grain. Dane County enforces some of the strictest erosion control and stormwater rules in Wisconsin on top of DNR requirements, and the loess silt loams are highly erodible, so tracking pads, dewatering bags, frequent inspection, and permanent stormwater practices are a budgeted scope, not a contingency.
Full detail on the Dane County market is on the Dane 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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