Squaring the Circle in North Carolina’s Capital Region
As plans took shape to finish Raleigh’s outer loop highway, the state’s turnpike authority’s Complete 540 inclusion strategy was guided by a time-honored principle: Being a good neighbor.
Glance at a road map of Greater Raleigh and you will see a vast, semicircular highway – called the Outer Loop – surrounding the capital region. This highway project, which broke ground in 1992, has been gradually expanding its circle ever since. As members of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority, we are part of a huge team of public and private entities that is committed to completing the circle – and doing it in ways that expand opportunity and strengthen our communities.
Phase one construction of this $2.2 billion, two-phase project began in November 2019 and comprises 18 miles of the loop. We are employing a design-build process, which means we are working on an accelerated timeline with a strong interest in innovation and collaboration. Among our top priorities is to be highly inclusive at every stage of the project. Here are four of our key strategies:
“We are grateful to the North Carolina Turnpike Authority for giving Vistabution the opportunity to participate in the largest project in NCDOT history. We also appreciate the Turnpike Authority’s forward thinking and innovative approach to the design-build contracting process. Because of the bundling of right-of-way acquisition with utility work, environmental remediation, and demolition, our firm was able to serve as a prime consultant on the project team. If this had not been the case, we probably would have been a part of the project team, as a subcontractor, like most DBE firms on design-build project teams.”
– Vistabution
