Any company can say they care about the communities where they work. We like to let our actions speak for themselves.

S.T. Wooten Corporation was contracted to replace two deteriorating 1954-era bridges that link Cedar Point with Swansboro, towns along the North Carolina Outer Banks. Because the NC 24 bridges are lifelines to these tourism-based towns, residents were extraordinarily concerned about the delays and inaccessibility that would be created during the construction process.

S.T. Wooten Corporation took the initiative by involving members of the community as well as the North Carolina Department of Transportation to form a monitoring committee. As the project progressed, citizen input helped revise traffic control plans. And when circumstances occurred that were outside of our control, S.T. Wooten Corporation proposed a new solution -- the acceleration of the completion date by a year.

By bringing in extra crews and changing delivery dates and production schedules, S.T. Wooten Corporation was able to finish the project an additional two months earlier than the revised completion date, a full 14 months sooner than originally planned. There community outreach efforts were recognized with the 2003 State Award from the National Partnership for Highway Quality (NPHQ).

The Executive Director of the NPHQ, Bob Templeton, said, "Widening a 3.2-mile stretch of highway, demolishing two-lane existing bridges and rebuilding five-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.'"

Count on S.T. Wooten Corporation to uphold the best interests of the community.