Why Are Texas Flyover Ramps So Freaking High?

Flyover ramps in Texas are getting more and more common ... they're also getting higher and higher. One currently under construction in San Antonio will rise to 126 feet.

Flyover ramps are basically just fancy on ramps that take you up and over an existing roadway instead of coming up alongside it. They are meant to replace the old school "clover leaf" ramp designs as they use less material and take up less space.

In an attempt to get traffic to move faster, traffic engineers have tried lots of different ideas and the "flyover" seems to be the best. It uses less space and material while allowing traffic to merge from one highway to another seamlessly.

Merging also happens "at speed" meaning, traffic doesn't have to slow, (as much), to merge. That lessens congestion which is getting worse in Texas and may, ultimately, start costing drivers money.

Why Are Texas Flyovers So High?

There are many reasons for this ... Texas Highwayman explained the top 3 which I "dumbed" down a little here:

Older designs had a minimum clearance of about 15 feet. These new ones require longer bridge spans so the support columns are taller, sometimes adding up to 10 or 15 extra feet to the flyovers' height. Multiply that by 3, 4 or even 5 levels and you're getting up there.

New designs must also allow for higher speeds which means more "banking" on the curves and that also adds a little height.

But perhaps the most significant reason interchanges in Texas soar so high are Texas' ubiquitous frontage roads. Accommodating continuous frontage roads through an interchange in most cases requires adding another level to the interchange, resulting in five levels and adding 25 feet or more of additional height, pushing the height of such interchanges to over 100 feet. - texashighwayman.com

If you want the full on, scientific explanation(s), click here.

Texas Flyover Fun Facts

The "High 5" flyover in Dallas is taller than the Statue of Liberty.

(Most of) The tallest flyovers in the world are in Texas.

Texas' newest flyover, at I-10 and 1604 in San Antonio, is 126 feet high - the tallest in Texas.

The national record, 130 feet, is currently held by the Pregerson Interchange in LA. You might remember it from this scene in "Speed".