A native of Graham County, Watson began his 32-year career in the DOT's Murphy office.
"There's not one there now; it's Andrews. Most of my career was in the construction department," said this N.C. State graduate, who earned a degree in civil engineering.
He has also supervised traffic services, which includes stop signs and road-line paintings. The roadside environmental department, which includes landscaping flowers and shrubs, also fell under his jurisdiction, as did a small design group.
Before he became Martin's assistant within the 700-employee 14th Division, Watson spent six years as area engineer for construction. "During those years I covered 25 counties, which was a big territory and required a lot of windshield time."
For the last several years, Watson has been in charge of handling engineering and contract administration for construction projects. Generally that means spending half a day in the office handling the paperwork - actually computer work since, according to his co-workers, Watson is also a "computer guru." The other half of the day is spent on the job site troubleshooting, giving directions and making decisions.
An engineer's strength, Watson said, lies in visualization skills. "An engineer can visualize what a completed project looks like. Some of our toughest situations are dealing with property owners on right-of-way projects. Our goal is to make the projects as compatible to the property owners as we can. Sometimes, when we're in the middle of a project, the owner might think that's what it's going to look like in the end and get a little upset with us. My job is to help them visualize the end product."
Another situation that can get tough, said this avid racquetball player, is dealing with different environmental agencies on a large-scale project. "When you are moving lots of earth and rock for a large-scale road project, it can be difficult to gauge the impact on sedimentation and erosion," he said. "And you'll need a lot more time than this short interview for me to tell you about endangered species."
Some of the agencies he deals with include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, the Tennessee Valley Authority, all permitting agencies, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the N.C. Wildlife Resources, non-permitting agencies.
Another of Watson's strengths involves his previous experience with the state's Transportation Improvement Plan. "We can have a project slated to go - the plans are ready, the money's there and everything else is in place, then we have a problem getting a permit from one of the various agencies. That can cost us to lose the whole project because they don't hold the money for us; it reverts back. We've lost $30 million in TIP funds when we couldn't get the right permits in time."
Recently Watson hired Mark Davis, formerly with the N.C. Wildlife Resources, in the position of environmental supervisor to work with the permitting agencies. Davis will come on board in June.
"We want to do the right thing by the environment, but, at the same time, we want to be frugal with taxpayers' money. Davis' job will be to help us achieve that balance," he said.
As far as the TIP is concerned, Watson believes public input is extremely important. "In Jackson County, we had our public hearing on secondary roads May 15. This begins a very busy time of the year for us because each county within the 14th Division also has its public hearing."
In addition to working with the public, Watson works closely with towns and counties in their projects. "Take Sylva's downtown renewal project, for instance. We resurfaced Main Street as part of the plan and changed the traffic signals.
"Right now I'm working with Sylva Mayor Brenda Oliver and county Commission Chair Jay Denton about moving the bridge behind Scotts Creek School to downtown Sylva as part of the Greenway project. They are considering it as a foot bridge across the creek to provide access from downtown to Poteet Park. DOT has a stake in this, too, because we like to see old bridges restored."
For the past 22 years, he and his wife, Vesta, who teaches kindergarten at Cullowhee Valley School, have lived in Sylva. They have two sons: Michael, a dentist in Cary, and Jason, who works at the Jackson County Health Department; and two grandchildren.
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