Runaway Truck Ramp 04-09-08

Are there runaway truck ramps all over the country? I have seen a few on my travels, but there are two that I pass frequently on I-5 on the north end of the Ridge Route. It is a very steep grade down onto the valley floor and a lot of trucks travel this route every day. Despite brake checks and inspections there a occasionally brakes that fail and the eighteen wheelers go careening down the grade.

Off to the left the valley stretches out for hundreds of miles. On the right the runaway truck escape road climbs a steep grade.

This ramp has quite a few inches of loose gravel to slow the trucks, along with the steep grade at the top where it dead ends.

A little further on, where the roadway curves to the right, there is a runaway truck ramp on the west side of the northbound lanes. It also has the deep, loose gravel and a steep upward slope, coming to a dead end at the top.

On the southbound lines the steepest grade is on the south end of the Ridge Route going down out of the mountains into community of Castaic. To avoid the steep downward grade the lanes have been switched, with the northbound roadway passing under the southbound and taking the steeper slope up for several miles before switching back again. Fifty years ago when I first drove Hwy 99 (as it was before the Interstate was built) the twists and curves, the up and down grades, the narrowness of the canyon and the overheated engines all made this drive treacherous. It is so much easier now.