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Businessman does good turn for road
Businessman doing a good turn for Locust Grove intersection
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
Date published: 7/19/2008
RELATED:Dotsons’ energy, work ethic helping transform Orange
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
There have been a lot of questions about what is going on around the intersection of State Routes 20 and 611 in Orange County.
The short answer is simple: The Dotsons are building a half-mile of state road.
There was no state money to add a traffic light at the busy intersection in Locust Grove. So local businessman Kenny Dotson and his wife, Lora, are doing the work with son Josh and employees Richard Fowler and Jamie Carpenter, a former supervisor with the Virginia Department of Transportation.
The Dotsons are adding turn lanes from Route 20 onto Zoar Road on the east--which leads to the county's trash-collection site--and Gold Dale Road on the west--which leads to the Burr Hill community.
They are also providing drainage off Route 20 by putting curbs and gutters along the edge of the Locust Grove Town Center, which they own; filling in the steep bank that drops off the opposite side of Route 20; and adding 2,000 feet of silt fencing to catch runoff.
This small team has provided the man- and woman-power to bulldoze, grade, spread, load, roll, install and get everything ready for VDOT, which is now working alongside the Dotsons' crew to pave and reline the intersection.
"Lora and I have the equipment and the interest in the intersection," Kenny Dotson said during a lull in the work last week. "VDOT has provided the culverts, as well as the asphalt and gravel, and now it has sent its staff to finish up.
"They're doing some things. We're doing some things. A public-private partnership is a good way to get things done."
In this case, it was the only way the dangerous intersection was going to get any attention.
Orange County had spent all of its road money on improving the Route 20 intersections with U.S. 522 and State Route 601 (Flat Run Road).
VDOT had a little money left for safety improvements, such as turn lanes, but not enough to do the entire job at Locust Grove. The state can't start a road project it can't finish, so Dotson proposed a partnership to VDOT Residency Engineer Don Gore and his assistant Roy Tate.
Read more stories about Orange
Date published: 7/19/2008
Most recent reader comments:
Good Job Kenny and Lora
(posted by
wedens
, July 19, 2008 10:03 am)
Yes let us not forget Lora she works just as hard as her two men do. Taxpayers appreaciate the work they have done and their efforts will save lives at that intersection. God Bless their kindness and genorosity. I agree with wideopenspaces comments.
Had the county not been fools by re-working 20 and 601 they would have had money for this intersection. The 20 and 601 one could have been fixed when the new school is build by rolling that money into the cost. The only reason it was fixed was because of the fools trying to get to and from the LOW back gate. They kept going brain-dead when they got to this intersection and would get themselves in a wreck. Never had a single wreck there in my 27 years living across from it till that back gate opened.
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