A retiring coal unit and a new solar field have the same civil needs: access, foundations, drainage, security and a clean path for the interconnect. Utilities, cooperatives, independent power producers and municipal systems in Colorado are building and closing at the same time, and the contractor who serves them has to be equally comfortable on a green field and on a brownfield with live equipment next door.
We work for these owners as a site, foundation and building contractor. We prepare the pad, build the equipment foundations, run the underground, erect the control and maintenance buildings, and leave the specialty electrical, protection and generation contractors with a site that is ready for their work. We do not replace the utility's own engineering or its line crews. Our value is in making their scope easier to execute and safer to start.
Procurement in this segment is formal. Utilities and public power entities buy through prequalification, standardized contracts and bonded work, and they ask for documented safety records, schedules with float, and clean cost reporting. We write proposals to those expectations and are comfortable with owner-furnished equipment, outage windows and regulator-driven dates.
Plan around outages, access and the interconnect
The first question on any utility-side project is what has to stay energized. An expansion beside a running substation or generating unit is planned around clearances, grounding, lockout and the outage calendar, and we build the work plan with the owner's operations group before we price. Work that can be done outside the fence, such as access roads, drainage, laydown and prefabrication, moves first. Work inside the fence is sequenced to outage windows, with the pre-built assemblies and the rehearsed steps that a short outage requires.
Interconnection drives the schedule on generation projects. The utility's studies, the equipment orders and the regulator's decisions each have their own timeline, and we show them on the same schedule as construction. When a decision is outstanding, we say which scope is at risk and what it costs to hold the crew. That transparency matters on projects where a single interconnect date controls revenue.
Retirements, renewables and the Weld County gas patch
Colorado's power map is changing in specific places. Tri-State's 2025 annual report says it intends to retire the 448 MW Craig Station Unit 3 by January 1, 2028 and Unit 2 by September 30, 2028. Moffat County's 2020 assessed value was nearly $430 million, with 62 percent from its top 10 taxpayers, all energy-related, so plant and mine closures drive local redevelopment demand in Craig. For an owner, that means decommissioning, site reuse and replacement generation will all be on the table in the same years.
In the San Luis Valley, the 30 megawatt Alamosa Solar Generating Project near Alamosa entered commercial operation on May 10, 2012, supplying customers of Public Service Company of Colorado. In Weld County, an important oil and natural gas production area in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, a November 2011 report described almost 3,100 acres between Brighton and Fort Lupton that could be developed as an energy business park. The county's gas patch continues to need compressor, gathering and generation sites, and the civil work that goes with them.
Pads, foundations, roads and buildings
On a typical substation, generation or storage site we build the graded and stabilized yard, the oil containment and drainage, the control house or equipment enclosure, and the foundations for transformers, breakers and structures. Foundations are located by survey to the manufacturer's drawings, and our equipment pads and foundations work includes embed verification before placement. Heavy transformers arrive on special trailers, so the route and the pad both need engineering.
Access is often the hardest civil item. Remote sites need roads that can carry heavy hauls year-round, with culverts and turning radii designed for the longest load. Our heavy-haul access roads scope covers subgrade, base, drainage and the stabilized turnouts, and we check the design against the delivery trailer drawings. Where a utility retires a unit or a plant, industrial demolition services clear structures, slabs and foundations after the hazardous-material survey, and the site is graded for its next use.
Authorities, floodplains and code editions
Utility work crosses multiple authorities. Counties or cities issue grading and building permits, the state and federal agencies review wetlands, species and stormwater, and the utility's own standards govern the electrical work. Unincorporated Weld County, which includes Platteville, adopted the 2024 International Building Code effective June 15, 2026, with floodplain review required before construction in designated flood hazard areas, which matters on the South Platte side of the county. Other counties use different editions, so we confirm the one that applies to each parcel.
Energy and electrical rules are set at different levels. Building codes are local, while electrical and plumbing editions are set at the state level, and state energy code requirements under HB22-1362 apply when a locality updates its code. For a utility-owned building such as a control house or a maintenance shop, we ask whether the owner's standards or the local code control, and we resolve the answer in writing before design is released. Municipal and public entities also work with us on government and municipal buildings under similar rules.
Plains, mountain valleys and the Western Slope
Power sites are rarely close to town. We plan for crews to travel, and for the weather and logistics of remote work: wind on the plains, deep frost and snow in the mountain valleys, and long haul distances for steel and concrete. Alamosa sits at about 7,543 feet in the San Luis Valley and Craig at about 6,198 feet on US 40, and both take cold-weather concrete practices and winter shutdowns into the schedule. Perimeter security is a site-wide topic as well, and our fencing and security integration work covers fences, gates and access control for critical sites.
A remote project runs on logistics. We locate batch plants, aggregate sources and laydown early, confirm lodging capacity and keep spare parts for critical equipment at the site. Large neighbors such as data centers and metals and heavy industry sites draw on the same utility corridors, and we coordinate access, easements and outage dates when two owners use the same right of way.
Send the site plan and the outage calendar
Share the one-line diagram, the equipment list, the outage dates and the interconnect milestones. We will return a work plan that separates outside-the-fence from inside-the-fence work, a pad and road scope and a schedule with the regulatory dates stated.
Common Questions
Do you perform electrical work on energized equipment?
We do not take on energized utility work. Our scope is site, foundations, underground, structures and buildings, and we coordinate with the utility's line crews or the owner's electrical contractor. We plan clearances and lockouts with them and keep construction crews outside the energized zone.
How do you bid when equipment is owner-furnished?
We state the boundary clearly: who receives, unloads, stores and sets the equipment, and who is responsible for damage. Owner-furnished items carry a delivery date and a receiving plan in our schedule. If the owner's date moves, we show the effect on the crews and the finish.
Can you build a control house to the utility's standard design?
Yes. We build to the owner's standard drawings and specifications, and we add site-specific items such as foundations, conduit entries and grounding to match the site. We also confirm that the local building department accepts the standard, since some owners are exempt from local review and others are not.
What should we plan for when a plant or mine is retired?
A hazardous-material survey, a decommissioning plan, structure removal, slab and foundation removal, and site restoration. Craig Station's Unit 1 retirement date was affected by a federal emergency order in December 2025, which shows that closure dates can move. We plan flexible start dates and keep survey and design work ahead of the date.
How does remote location affect cost?
Through mobilization, logistics and weather. Concrete and aggregate may travel farther, crews may need lodging and winter work needs protection. We price those items separately so the owner sees what the location adds.