On an icy day, it’s not unheard of for cars and semi tractor trailer rigs traveling 230th Avenue northwest of Hays to slide off the hilly, narrow rock road.
“At our plant, we employ 360 people,” said Mark Hess, vice president of operations for Hess Services Inc. “This year alone, 20 to 25 of our employees have wrecked their cars and slid into the ditch.”
While 230th Avenue has a series of rollercoaster hills, one of the steepest that is north facing, in particular, gets very slick in icy wintry weather.
“Luckily we’ve had no serious injuries,” said Hess, “but it’s just very treacherous. And when a car and a big truck are passing by each other, it’s a gambit as to who is going to slide into the ditch first.”
Hess Services manufactures oilfield production equipment for customers throughout North Dakota, Colorado and Texas from its multi-building industrial campus at the southwest corner of 230th Avenue and Feedlot Road.
Each week, as many as 70 to 80 semi tractors pulling drop-deck trailers pull out of the yard as they haul oversized storage tanks and other equipment. The easiest route would be 230th Avenue, for accessing the on- and off-ramps to Interstate 70, said Hess. But instead the trucks take Feedlot Road, which although narrow, is paved with asphalt.
“That road is so narrow it’s not safe to run large trucks on it,” said Hess of 230th Avenue. Even vendors hauling in pipe have had to be pulled from the ditch, leaving them to complain about hauling in supplies, he said.
How long the situation will continue is anyone’s guess. But the Ellis County Commission at its regular meeting Monday set aside $800,000 to kick-start improvements to the unpaved portion of 230th Avenue.
(Read more: News – The Hays Daily News)