FROM “POWERNUKE” TO PEOPLE POWER: DAVID LOVELESS AND THE TEXAS RAMP PROJECT

by Alan Linq

Most people don’t think about wheelchair ramps until they suddenly need one. Until a single step becomes a wall.

Across Texas, that happens many times a month. In 2024 alone, the Texas Ramp Project averaged about 590 referrals per month—requests from social services and community partners trying to help people who are effectively trapped in their own homes. Since 1985, the nonprofit has built more than 31,000 wheelchair ramps across the state, adding up to nearly 162 miles of access. It’s a simple structure with a complicated, life-changing effect.

One of the people helping make that happen is David Loveless.When we first spoke on Zoom, his screen name read “PowerNuke,” a remnant of a very literal former career. “I was a nuclear engineer,” he says, “I worked in nuclear power.”

Loveless was born in Washington, D.C., raised in Woodbridge, Virginia, and attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. After a year at Baltimore Gas and Electric, he moved into field work and spent about two decades inspecting plants for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Later, he shifted into technical risk analysis, a job focused on understanding failure before it happens. “I look at how things fail,” he says, “and then I build models.” Those models account for mechanical breakdowns, redundancy, and human error. In that world, success is incremental. “Sometimes I got excited,” he says, “when the odds of a plant melting down changed by 1 in 1 million.”

Loveless retired in January 2023, fully intending to stop working. Westinghouse persuaded him to return for about 18 months, but even that second act clarified something important.

“I really don’t need the money,” he says, “and I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do.” He had hoped to work on a moon reactor connected to the Artemis program—power for a future moon base where sunlight isn’t dependable enough for solar.

Now retired, newly married (he and his wife wed in July), and happily busy, Loveless divides his time between travel, recreation, and volunteer work. It was during an October trip to Branson, Missouri—part of an extended honeymoon—that he connected with Celebration and began talking more about the Texas Ramp Project.

The organization began in 1985 as the Dallas Ramp Project, founded by the Richardson Kiwanis. Over time, it expanded statewide while keeping the same mission: build ADA-compliant wheelchair ramps at private residences for people who need them, at no cost to the recipient.

Today, the Texas Ramp Project serves 145 counties. As of November, it has built 31,253 ramps. “There are only two paid employees,” he says, “we do pay an administrator now.”

Materials are prefabricated in a small warehouse—modular sections, uprights, and handrails—then loaded into trucks, usually on Saturday mornings. Volunteers range from experienced builders to people who have never held a drill. “If you have work gloves and a willingness to work,” he says, “we’ll take you.”

The ramps are ADA compliant, with precise rise-to-length ratios, flat platforms at turns, and site surveys to ensure safety. Loveless has seen what happens when ramps are built without that care. “I call those Disney rides,” he says, “because they’re just so steep.”

But the real impact of the work isn’t technical. It’s personal. He described a mobile home sitting about four and a half feet off the ground. The man who lived there couldn’t leave without three people carrying him out—and those same people had to promise to return to carry him back in.

“He had been like that for several years,” Loveless says. A volunteer team built a ramp in a single morning. “In four and a half hours,” he says, “it changed his life.” Before the crew had finished their final adjustments, the man came out on his scooter and began riding up and down the ramp. “He was so happy,” Loveless says.

At the end of our conversation, I asked Loveless what advice he would offer readers thinking about how to use their time and energy well. “If you’re able to, financially or physically,” he says, “get out and help.” And for those who need help but aren’t sure where to turn: “There is help available,” he says, “go use social services.”

To learn more about the Texas Ramp Project—or to volunteer or support their work—visit TexasRamps.org.