Over the weekend, the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) launched its first extranet website, designed to serve its business partners.

Called Connect NCDOT, the site houses information geared toward contractors, engineering firms and other businesses that collaborate with the department.

Previously, that information was available on the department's public website, www.NCDOT.gov.

Connect NCDOT is part of the department's overall effort to upgrade its entire Web infrastructure to better serve all of the various users who visit NCDOT.gov.

"For years, NCDOT's website has stored an immense amount of information," said Ted Vaden, NCDOT deputy secretary for internal and external affairs. "Over the past year and a half, we've studied NCDOT.gov and surveyed our users. What we found was that much of the information on NCDOT. gov was geared toward a very specialized group of people -- our business partners. Connect is a way to collaborate with them better."

Business-focused content on Connect NCDOT is organized by function. For example, firms looking to bid on construction projects will no longer have to search multiple units' Web pages for details on upcoming projects.

All the information for advertised projects will be located in one central location.

Users looking for business-related information on NCDOT.gov will be automatically redirected to the new Web "home" for that information.

Connect NCDOT is live at https://connect.nc-dot. gov/.