From mentee to mentor, Bartlett & West experiences both sides of NTTA’s ROAD Program

The North Texas Tollway Authority’s (NTTA) ROAD Program, which stands for Relationships & Opportunities Advancing Diversity, has been promoting and facilitating relationships between mentor and protégé businesses for 14 years… and one company has now experienced both sides of that partnership.

As a mentor company, Bartlett & West is excited to collaborate with Primera Engineers, a women-owned business, under the NTTA's ROAD Program from 2024-2026. The program aims to provide “business opportunities for disadvantaged, minority-and/or women-owned business enterprises to participate in large NTTA contracts.” The unique part is that Bartlett & Westers participated in the program as minority-owned mentee consultant from 2018-2020 under Civil Associates, Inc. (CAI). They were part of the program right before CAI was acquired by Bartlett & West in 2020.

During the two-year program, a prime contractor is partnered with selected diverse firms, serving as mentors on a voluntary basis. The goal of the partnership is to help the team grow and build capacity, acquire new skills and relationships, strengthen their processes, and enhance their opportunities for performing on larger contracts. Both the protégé and mentor will participate in seminars, workshops, and networking events, and provide quarterly reports to measure the team's success.

"The ROAD Program helps both mentee and mentor learn more about best business practices and provides opportunities to network with other like-minded companies and organizations. It truly is rewarding to pay it forward by being a mentor/prime firm," said Naser Abusaad, Bartlett & West Texas market leader and previous owner of CAI.

To qualify as a mentor, a company must have at least three years of experience as a prime consultant in the transportation or similar industry, while also showing a commitment to the capacity-building program. The consultant must have two years of experience and be a certified D/M/WBE at the time of application.

To learn more about the NTTA ROAD Program and the participants, visit NTTA’s website.