December 14, 1952
El Paso’s newest and steepest road leads to the new KROD television tower on the crest of historic Mt. Franklin.
The road was engineered by the Lance Engineering Co. of El Paso and built by the Pecos Valley Construction Co. of Carlsbad. Cost of the road alone is estimated at $36,000.
The road, according to Engineer Paul Lance, is typical of a road to a mountain mine in the Southwest. It is definitely not for public traffic, and in fact can only be traversed by truck or jeep.
Before construction of the road was undertaken, Lance surveyed the possibility of hauling materials for the tower and the house for the men who serve it, to the top of Mt. Franklin by helicopter. He also seriously considered using power driven cables to carry the materials to the crest.
Finally after extensive surveys of Mt. Franklin the road was selected as the most economical and efficient means of getting to the top.
Lance chose the best route which took off from an abandoned quarry well up the side. This meant that much of the road came ready made, since the access to the quarry was still there.
Another advantage of the route is that there was and is no danger of dislodged rocks rolling onto highways underneath. The KROD mountain road sits above an uninhabited arroyo into which rocks shaken loose by blasting fell harmlessly.
Many tons of dynamite were exploded in construction of the road. The job was exceptionally difficult since blasting had to be done ahead of all equipment, and then the road building equipment hauled to the scene of each blast.
Actual construction of the road took six weeks.
Average grade of the road is 15 per cent, 16 per cent at its steepest. This compares with an 8 per cent grade on Brown Street at its steepest. Grade of the road to Carlsbad over the Guadalupe Pass at its steepest is 9 per cent.
More than 2,000 square yards of rock were cleared at the climax of the road to level the mountain crest for construction of the television tower and adjacent building.
Engineering of the road was not the first job of the nature handled by Paul Lance. Working as general manager for the Dowell Construction Co. in the early days of World War II, he supervised construction of 500 miles, the Yukon Division, of the famed Alaska-Canada highway connecting the United States with Canada. This road passed through mountains, swamps and muskeg and gave Lance experience in building difficult roads.
Comments