Publisher’s
Viewpoint Mark Buckshon, publisher
CELEBRATE your anniversary and
share your good news
with powerful editorial publicity
Your business has reached an anniversary milestone –
indicating experience, competence and reliability.

Effective anniversary publicity will help you cement
and grow your existing relationships and encourage
new clients to do business with you.

For more information please contact:
Chase, Account Manager
1-888-627-8717 Ext.212
chase@ncconstructionnews.com North Carolina Construction News (NCCN) is distributed
throughout the Carolinas construction industry.

NCCN is circulated on a controlled circulation list to
qualified readers including members of most major
construction associations in the Carolinas. The maga-
zine is supplemented by a weekly e-letter which
reaches more than 4,000 industry leaders each week.

For information contact:
Chase, Phone: 1-888-627-8717 ext 212
chase@ncconstructionnews.com www.ncconstructionnews.com. ISSN 1940-3682.

2 — AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 — The North Carolina Construction News
Deadlines are always a challenge in both the
construction and publishing businesses. You cer-
tainly don’t want to miss your submission deadline
for a bid or RFP response – and if your project has
a delivery time, the penalties for being late can be
challenging. I thought about these challenges as we were
preparing this issue of North Carolina Construction
News for publication.

Our lead story relates to the massive amounts
of recovery work still to do from Hurricane Flo-
rence – and we were assembling the publication
just as Hurricane Dorian began lashing the Outer
Banks and eastern parts of the state.

The question: Should we rebuild the issue to
cover Dorian, or leave things alone and focus on
the Florence recovery efforts.

I decided the “leave things” option would make
the most sense, especially since our story about
Florence describes the tangible rebuilding oppor-
tunities for contractors and subtrades – while the
news about Dorian is still developing.

We can certainly provide immediate coverage
at the ncconstructionnews.com website, but it
sees more logical for us to focus on the longer-
range rather than the short-term picture in this
magazine. And that is why we include Jacob D’Albora’s
story about the construction industry’s “tipping
point” towards modular construction – tied in with
climate change and labour shortages – which re-
late of course to hurricanes and this issue’s other
major story describing the challenges contractors
are having in filling both skilled and salaried jobs in
the state.

Next issue, we’ll undoubtedly have coverage
about the Dorian recovery effort and cost.

I always appreciate your feedback and re-
sponses as well as story suggestions. You can
email me at buckshon@ncconstructionnews.com.

S.T. Wooten leads $330 million I-40 Widening
project from Southeast Raleigh to Clayton
AGC survey: More than 90% of NC contractors
having trouble filling skilled craft positions
US Navy outlines strategy for $1.7 billion in
Hurricane Florence recovery projects at NC bases
3 4
6



S.T. Wooten leads $330 million I-40 Widening
project from Southeast Raleigh to Clayton
S.T. Wooten says it is spearhead-
ing the $330 million widening and re-
design project to improve traffic on
I-40. In conjunction with the North
Carolina Department of Transporta-
tion (NCDOT), the project will cover
12.8 miles of the highway extending
from the I-440 beltline in Raleigh to
N.C. 42 in Johnston County. The pro-
ject began in the fall of 2018 and will
be completed in 2022.

The contractor is adding lanes
throughout the project – expanding
four-lane sections to eight lanes, and
six-lane sections to 10 lanes. As for
the existing lanes, crews will add on
to them with 9.5 inches of asphalt
overlay. Crews will also make
changes to improve the interchange
at N.C. 42, converting it to an innova-
tive Diverging Diamond Interchange.

This unique design, in which two di-
Z M
Cary M
Knightdale Raleigh
Wendell Wendell
Apex Garner
Clayton Garner
Clayton Holly Springs
Clayton Clayton
rings Fuquay-Varina
Wilson's Mills
Selma Angier
Smithfield Angier
P Pine Level
Four Oaks
Four Oaks
Four Oaks
Coats Lillington
Lillington Benson
Erwin Dunn
Linden Newton Grove
Godwin Falcon
Wade rections of traffic cross briefly to the left side of the
road, will help increase traffic flow and allow free-flow-
ing turns onto the interstate.

In addition to building the Diverging Diamond Inter-
change along with several other interchanges, the pro-
ject incudes construction of 15 bridges. One of these
will be a new flyover bridge from I-440 to I-40 east
bound and the installation of two new bridges for the
Diverging Diamond Interchange at NC 42.

A company spokesperson says, with up to 10,000
cars passing through the I-40 project zone each day, it is
getting creative to keep traffic flowing smoothly during
construction. “The team will construct a unique temporary access
ramp that will run from a closed highway bridge down
into the median, which will ultimately save 34,500 loads
from being hauled in traffic,” a news release submitted
by the contractor says. “An additional 7,600 loads will
be saved thanks to a conveyor that will run from the as-
phalt plant straight to the construction zone.

The statement continues: “By the time it is com-
pleted, the I-40 design-build job will touch every division
at S.T. Wooten. That includes more than 250 construc-
tion crew members working alongside those of the 20
plus subcontractors working on the project. Construc-
tion crew managers will be meeting frequently and
communicating constantly with the NCDOT to ensure
each milestone is met and the job gets done right.”
F Eastover
The North Carolina Construction News — AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 — 3