W.D. Wright Contracting Inc.

Since 1977 W.D. Wright Contracting Inc. has been providing certified flagging and traffic control services to clients across Pennsylvania and the tristate area. Over the years the company has established itself as a trusted partner within a litany of clients including communications companies, municipalities and utilities.

Starting out as CATV and tree removal specialist in Pennsylvania, W.D.  Wright has seen a major expansion over the last decade that has seen the company establish an expanded presence to the south, opening up a Nashville office in 2016.

W.D. Wright has achieved unprecedented success in the last year, doubling its employee ranks over the last 12 months. That growth has been driven largely by the company’s decision to expand its geographical reach. The company now has three offices in Ohio, located in Columbus, Medina and Bowling Green with plans to expand into Louisville and North Carolina in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

“There are 81 people a day moving into Nashville,” says Luke Wright, vice president at W.D. Wright. “Wherever you see statistics like that, that’s where you want to follow.”

In addition to traffic control services including safety training, traffic pattern planning and design and flagging operations, W.D. Wright offers a range of general contracting and excavation services for residential, commercial and industrial construction, as well as repair and maintenance projects. With more than 35 years of experience, the W.D. Wright team offers full excavation, trenching, boring, land development and project management services.

W.D. Wright also offers snow removal services including plowing, hand shoveling, skid steer service and salting. The 24-hour service is fully insured and handles projects of all size from convenience stores to industrial parks and entire townships.

A new track

W.D. Wright grew thanks to a focus on the telecommunications, fiber optics and wireless sector, providing turnkey service for wired and wireless communications network such as street cutting, duct installation, manhole installation and complete restoration services. In recent years the company has shifted its focus to providing traffic control services for the telecommunications and utility sectors.

With road crews already trained in traffic safety and extensive experience working within the utility sector, the expansion into telecommunications is a logical and potentially lucrative step for the company. “We specialize in gas work we’re moving more into doing telecommunication and other telecommunications traffic control,” says Wright.

The arrival of high-speed internet services such as Fiber are often a bellwether of larger development trends and are an ideal entrée into a new market for companies like W.D. Wright. The company currently has a team of 80 working to perform traffic control for telecommunication infrastructure in Nashville, Tennessee, but will not be skipping town once the project is complete.

“Our objective is to follow those types of projects wherever they go. It’s nice because we establish ourselves in those areas then when they move out we reach out to local municipalities and utilities,” says Wright. “We’ve really got the platform and safety down to a science and we can take this platform anywhere and sell it.”

An all-inclusive approach

W.D. Wright distinguishes itself from the competition thanks in part to a unique pricing structure designed to ensure customer satisfaction. “We offer very competitive pricing, typically inclusive price for our customers that’s allows them to budget better,” he says.

This distinct pricing model, along with an exceptional safety record, has helped W.D. Wright establish relationships with a number of industry-leading clients such as Columbia Gas. The company has the multiple contracts to perform all traffic control-related work in the state of Ohio for Columbia Gas, making the energy company one of W.D. Wright’s largest clients. “They are a great company to work for and we understand each other very well,” says Wright.

With a commitment to quality work and a focus on safety, Wright says he often hears positive feedback from clients and competitors alike. “We’ve had them reach out to us and say ‘we want our site to look like yours.’ The product sells itself and you can really tell the difference between us and some of our competitors,” says Wright.

As a leading regional provider with an ever-expanding footprint, W.D. Wright Contracting Inc. will continue to widen its customer base while containing to perform the same full suite of traffic control services that has kept the company running for almost 40 years.