The N.C. Highway Patrol arrested seven undocumented workers early Tuesday at the construction site at Carter-Finley Stadium as they were searching for a person who fled the scene of an accident the day before, according to Lt. Everett Clendenin of the Highway Patrol.

“Troopers and federal agents went to the stadium looking for a driver who was involved in an accident the day before,” Clendenin said. “We had information that the suspect would be there.”

While the suspect was not arrested Tuesday morning at the construction site, Clendenin said officials received information while making arrests that led them to the suspect.

“We found information there that led to an arrest later,” he said.

The construction at the stadium is to expand the northeast endzone seating – creating nearly 7,000 new seats at the stadium. The Wolfpack Club, according to both Director of News Services Keith Nichols and Athletics Director Lee Fowler, is financing the project and that the University is removed from who the individual contractors hire.

Fowler said at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday he wasn’t aware of any arrests at Carter-Finley stadium — he did, however, know who was in charge of the project.

“The Wolfpack Club is taking charge of the construction for the University,” he said. “[The University] will lease the property from the Wolfpack Club when construction is finished, just like we did with the Vaughn Towers.”

Nichols reiterated the University itself is not responsible for who the contractor hires.

“We’re not delving into who the company employs,” Nichols said. “We delve more into the job and the project.”

The workers taken into custody worked for the subcontractor Miller and Long Concrete Construction. Ben White from the construction company did not return phone calls Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

The normal process with a typical building on campus is that the University architect will handle everything from programming to the drafting of the construction documents, according to Rob Yaeger, an assistant director in the University architect’s office. The project is then handed over to Construction Management.

But according to Carol Woodyard, director of Construction Management, since the project is funded by private dollars, it works a little differently.

“It doesn’t become University property until they give it to us,” Woodyard said.

The Wolfpack Club is responsible for selecting a designer and a general contractor. In both cases, they are not required to hold an open bidding process, as is the case with normal University projects.

However, Construction Management does choose a project manager who acts as an adviser throughout the process.

This is where Billy Bryant comes in.

As the project manager for the construction project, he not only advises the Wolfpack Club and its contractors, but serves as a liaison between the club and the University

A project like this is commonly referred to as a “second-party project,” according to Bryant.

“It’s connected to the University, but being done through a nonUniversity entity,” he said.

In a normal University project, project managers from construction management oversee the construction phase for the University.

“The designer and contractor are answerable to us,” Bryant said. “In this case, the designer and contractor are answerable to the Wolfpack Club.”

The general contractor for this project, T.A. Loving, also did the construction of the Murphy Center.

Although he said his guess is that Miller and Long will continue their work, he said it is possible to pull any contractor or subcontractor off the job at any point in the construction process.

“Usually that’s time consuming and you better have a daggum good reason,” he said.

He said it’s difficult for the University to monitor who the companies hire and that the University does not have the manpower to do so. He said his hope, however, is that any contractor working on University grounds would take the proper steps to hire properly documented workers.

“How you enforce that, as you well know, right now is being debated in Congress,” he said. “At some point, you have to rely on other people.”

Editor in Chief Tyler Dukes contributed to this report.