RANGER, Texas (AP) - If you’re thinking of snow right now, it’s only because it’s nearly 100 degrees outside. But when they think of snow in Eastland County, it’s usually followed by a singular question: What will it do to Ranger Hill?
“It almost always shuts down,” answered Eastland County Judge Rex Fields. “Ranger Fire Department has to come out to get people to divert and get off the road; TxDOT comes out.”
The Interstate 20 roadway at Ranger Hill, a little more than 8 miles east of Ranger, has a long, notorious history.
“It is an anomaly, you won’t see that kind of a hill until you get out to New Mexico somewhere,” Fields told the Abilene Reporter-News (https://bit.ly/1EAKnqf). “They’ve always told me that’s the highest grade on Interstate 20 anywhere across Texas.”
Indeed, the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, labels that length of I-20 as one of the steepest in the state at 6 degrees. The agency estimates more than 18,000 vehicles pass through there each day. The stretch measures a little over 2 miles, according to Google Maps.
But it’s a combination of factors that makes Ranger Hill dangerous. In 2013 alone, eight people died driving Ranger Hill. Overall, there have been 127 accidents there since 2008.
Heading west, halfway up the road curves sharply to the left and then, over half a mile later, back to the right. It’s at this first curve where 18-wheelers and slow-moving cars bog down. Their forward motion, already reduced by the uphill climb, is further bled by the change in direction.
This is also where the roadway banks, adding up to an 8-degree super-elevation, as TxDOT describes it. When the weather is dry, it’s not much of a problem. But when it’s icy, that’s when the accidents start to happen.
“We try to turn people around before they get on the hill. But if they’re stuck on the hill and they get iced in, it’s just a terrible event,” Fields said. “That slope causes people to slide off the road.”
Making things worse is the lack of access roads. Emergency crews have to travel the same route as the motorists already stranded.
Solutions for all these problems were addressed recently when TxDOT presented their latest alternatives for fixing the roadway in a meeting at the Ranger High School cafeteria. Engineers described two options for flattening the roadway and lowering the super-elevation.
“Our biggest consideration was we needed to upgrade the facility to the current design standards,” said Krishna Peapully, the project manager. “So we refer back to the TxDOT design standards and ask, ’What is the speed we need to design this facility for?’”
For rural areas, Peapully said 75 miles per hour is the TxDOT norm. Those familiar with Ranger Hill will recall that last year the speed was reduced to 65 mph, which accompanied the installation of higher concrete barriers and high-mast safety lighting.
The engineers have about 3 miles to work with. They must keep the stretch confined to the right of way as much as possible so that it aligns with the new rest area under construction at the top of the hill, and they must link up with the current Strawn overpass about a mile from the hill’s bottom.
“We have two different options, it’s the same design speed,” said Peapully. “We can achieve a grade of 3.5 percent. But the difference is the curvature of the roadway.”
The difference between the two comes down to the super-elevation. Alternative One reduces the banking to 3.7 percent, Alternative Two drops it to only 5.1 percent.
“You can design both; there’s nothing wrong with either option,” Peapully said. “The problem is that during inclement weather here, you have accidents related to vehicles sliding off. So roadway banking, or super-elevation, is very critical.”
Both options require TxDOT to expand their right of way into private land. Alternative One would claim 100 acres while Alternative Two would take 80.
“We tried to not go too far out, but not stay too close to existing (right of way),” Peapully explained. “So we picked a happy medium and then laid out two different options.”
Rick Fambro lives in Dallas but attended the meeting because he is one of the landowners who would be affected by the construction.
“We own a ranch that’s been in our family just short of 100 years, it’s impacted on the very eastern end of the plans here for the realignment,” he said.
Alternative One would affect him more, though he understood the need for the change.
“Maybe it’s a couple of three additional acres off of us, but I would prefer alternative two for no other reason than that,” he said. “I’m impressed with the detail these folks have done. I’m in the commercial real estate business, so I understand where the needs of the public obviously supersede anything related to private property ownership.”
Andrew Carlson, the public information officer for the TxDOT-Yoakum/Brownwood Districts, said there is still plenty of time for the public to comment on the alternatives. Another meeting will be held in the fall to ask for more feedback.
He gave a rough estimate for the project at $80 million, but acknowledged that may change. It could be a year before the project might get started, and then perhaps another three years before completion.
But during construction, Peapully said, traffic would continue along Ranger Hill.
“These improvements are much needed. Everybody who lives in this part of the country, they know the feeling,” he said. “Public input is much welcome, that’s why we’re here.”
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Information from: Abilene Reporter-News, https://www.reporternews.com
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