CLAREMORE, Okla. — A Rogers County man said he’s concerned with the safety of the newly built Highway 20.
Two years ago Keetonville Hill was a dangerous, windy road. Now, it’s completely changed but Ken Broyles said it could be safer, with the addition of guard rails.
“I think that’s it’s an accident waiting to happen, I can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like when we get snow and ice out here,” said Ken Broyles.
Broyles has lived on Keetonville Road for 30 years. He’s taken the old Keetonville Hill for decades. And now that the highway has been completely redone, he’s thankful but he said he still believes it’s dangerous.
“They put a new access to get to my road out here at Keetonville Road. And there’s such a drop off on both sides of the access there that I would assume they’d put guard rails on it,” said Broyles.
But after calling several people with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, he said they disagree with him about the hazard of the drop offs.
“He said no go on the guardrails. That the slope is a four to one, which means four horizontal and one vertical and then if a car went over it, it wouldn’t flip. And I told him that that wasn’t something that I’d want to check out, that theory, because it’s 100 feet from the road to the bottom of that slope,” said Broyles.
2 News spoke with ODOT and they said, both Highway 20 and the access road meet all federal design criteria for this type of highway. But Broyles said he doesn’t like that answer and believes the slope is too far down to not have guard rails.
“That’s not the answer I want but and several of my neighbors, and my neighbor next door, she and her family agree with me so that’s where we are now,” said Broyles.
Broyles said this road is his only way in and out and he wants it to be safer for everyone. He said he’s hopeful more safety measures will be put into place before someone is hurt.
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