North Carolina Highway Team Wins National Quality Award

Community Involvement Courted Success in White Oak River Bridge Replacement

Austin,TX/September 4, 2003 – The National Partnership for Highway Quality (NPHQ) today presented its 2003 State Award to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and the S.T. Wooten Corporation for the White Oak River Bridges Project in Swansboro. The team took the spotlight for involving the community and completing the project 14 months ahead of schedule in order to minimize the impact on the popular tourist town. NPHQ is a partnership of federal and state highway officials and leaders in the roadway industry who advocate customer-centered practices for roads that are completed quicker, ride better, last longer, reduce congestion and improve safety.

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Although the $15.5 million bridge reconstruction was vital to replace the two deteriorating 1954-era bridges that link Cedar Point with Swansboro, the people of Swansboro were extremely concerned about the project. The NC 24 bridges are a lifeline to the town, carrying tourists to charming boutiques, restaurants, and the historic district.

NCDOT wanted to address the needs of affected communities head on, so the NC 24 Monitoring Committee was born. Members represented the Swansboro Area Chamber of Commerce, the mayor, chief of police, business owners, residents, NCDOT, contractor S.T. Wooten, and other stakeholders. It met on Monday mornings for the duration of the job, for a total of 97 meetings.

Meetings quickly became an outlet to voice concerns and prompt continuous process improvements. The initial traffic control plan wasn't working, the citizens said, so NCDOT engineers, with input from the monitoring committee, revised it to accommodate the community, festivals, and emergency management. Delays in Swansboro and Cedar Point were untenable, the citizens said, so S.T. Wooten proposed acceleration of the completion date and a supplemental agreement was struck to cut off a year. The contractor did even better, finishing two months earlier than the revised date by bringing in extra crews and changing delivery dates and production schedules.

The Executive Director of the National Partnership for Highway Quality, Bob Templeton, said, "Widening a 3.2-mile stretch of highway, demolishing two-lane existing bridges and rebuilding 5-lane structures is a Herculean effort in any event; but the team's approach courted success by pulling partners together. Their success is reflected in a letter from Scott Chadwick, President of the Swansboro Area Chamber of Commerce, who wrote, 'While the new bridges and wider highway have made traffic move smoother and quicker through our area, (and) while contractors used their expertise and manpower to do a quality job in a shorter period of time, the greatest benefit of the project has been the way it brought the community together to work toward a common goal.'"

The National Partnership for Highway Quality encourages practices that will lead to a new era of roadway investment and performance to improve safety and service for highway users. It is composed of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), American Highway Users Alliance (AHUA), The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), Foundation for Pavement Preservation (FP2), Granite Construction Company, the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET), National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA), Kiewit Corporation, RedVector.com, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), URS Corporation, and Williams Brothers Construction Company.

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