Governor Luis A. Ferré recruited Watson to serve as Executive Director of Puerto Rico's Highways Authority from 1969 to 1972. He established what was then a revolutionary policy in Puerto Rico, the construction of toll roads in which user fees paid the cost of road-building. As a result, the construction of the expressway between Puerto Rico's two largest cities at the time, San Juan and Ponce, leapfrogged and was completed within several years, cutting travel time by two thirds, from almost four hours to one hour and fifteen minutes.