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Josh Dotson operates a tamper while helping pave
Lora Dotson laughs with her husband, Kenny, during a quick break from building turn lanes on State Route 20.
Josh Dotson (front) and his father, Kenny, look over paving along State Route 20. Kenny Dotson says his public-private road-work partnership with VDOT 'is a good way to get things done.' |
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.
"They were out here looking around, so I talked to them about it," said Dotson, a site-development and excavating contractor as well as a builder of homes and office buildings.
"I had already proffered a left-turn lane for Route 20 north for a rezoning, and I'd put in the right-turn lane from Route 20 south 12 years ago. I think VDOT was waiting for me to do the whole intersection."
Dotson didn't hear back from the VDOT officials for a while, but after Gore mentioned the idea to the Board of Supervisors and it approved, he got a call.
"I had offered to do the labor if they supplied the gravel and asphalt," Dotson said. The job required more than that, though.
"We've done all the site work, relocated the utilities, put the stone in place, installed the culverts, paid for all the concrete for the curbs and done the soil and erosion-control work," he said.
The Dotsons started working the first of May. This week, they were helping a VDOT crew pave the realigned road.
The project is expected to be finished by the end of next week.
Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net
