The N.C. Department of Transportation is inviting small and disadvantaged business owners to upcoming workshops where they can learn about how to work with the state agency.

This is the second round of outreach meetings hosted by the NCDOT. On Oct. 22, meetings will be held at several different locations to accommodate attendees from different areas of the state. 

Businesses will get the chance to meet with NCDOT staff from the agency’s highway divisions and Office of Civil Rights, and learn about the number of contracting opportunities available through the state agency. NCDOT advertises and awards contracts for construction, maintenance, emergency work, mowing, litter pickup, dead animal removal and traffic control every year. Disadvantaged businesses include small, minority-owned and women-owned businesses. 

“Our agency relies on hundreds of contracts from many smaller firms all around the state,” said the department's Chief Engineer Chris Peoples in a press release. “We want to help grow small businesses in North Carolina, and they can help us build and maintain our growing transportation network.”

The outreach meetings on Oct. 22 will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

GFBJ readers are represented in divisions three, six, eight and 10.  The meeting for divisions three and six will be held at Fayetteville Technical Community College Room 108/114, 2817 Fort Bragg Road, Fayetteville.

A second meeting for divisions eight and ten will be held in Moore county in the  Division 8 office at 150 DOT Drive, Carthage. 

Since it began in June 2021, more than 600 people from hundreds of firms have participated in the outreach workshops.