Merkel is a city in Taylor County, Texas, United States. Its population was 2,471 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Abilene metropolitan area.

Interstate 20 in Texas (I-20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States, running east from a junction with I-10 east of Kent, Texas, through the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to the Louisiana state line near Waskom, Texas. The original distance of I-20 was 647 miles (1,041 km) from I-10 to the Louisiana state line, reduced to the current distance of 636 miles (1,024 km) with the rerouting of I-20 in the 1980s and 1990s. I-20 is known as the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.