By Michael A . Martorelli
Most drivers probably have a story about a frustrating experience on one of the country ’ s interstate highways . They probably also have one about a pleasant occurrence on one of those roadways . It is likely that only a limited number are aware of the pages of reports and hours of discussions that occurred over the 40-year period , from 1916 to 1956 , before President Dwight D . Eisenhower signed the bill creating what has been called the world ’ s largest public works project . Even fewer have probably heard of men named Page , MacDonald and Fairbank , who were the true architects of today ’ s 48,500-mile Dwight D . Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways .
In the mid-1880s , state and local officials began considering the need for significant improvements to the rudimentary roads that crisscrossed the country . During the last decade of the 19th century and first two of the 20th , supporters of the so-called “ Good Roads ” movement were buoyed by several occurrences .
• In 1891 , New Jersey became the first state to authorize financial aid for road improvement .
• In 1893 , the Department of Agriculture created the US Office of Road Inquiry ( ORI ) to examine ways to improve existing roads and create new ones . The legislation creating that agency disavowed a federal role in financing or building any roads . It authorized the ORI only to disseminate relevant information to the state and local agencies directly involved in such projects .
• In 1905 , Logan Waller Page became the head of the renamed Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering ( OPRRE ). A graduate of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute ’ s highway engineering program , he established the tradition which saw trained engineers , not politicians or business promotors , use sound scientific principles when designing the procedures that became de rigeur in the process of road building .
• In 1907 , the Supreme Court ruled that under the Constitution ’ s interstate commerce clause , the federal government
Construction of I-55 in Mississippi , 1972 .
President Dwight D . Eisenhower , 1952 .
did indeed have the authority to finance the construction of roads and highways .
• In 1908 , the Ford Motor Company introduced the Model T , a simple to drive , easy to repair and relatively inexpensive car whose owners began demanding better roads on which to travel .
• As early as 1912 , entrepreneurs and business organizations began persuading many state and local officials to create roadways spanning several states and regions .
Eventually , those who saw an expanded federal role in the development of better roadways convinced Congress to pass and President Woodrow Wilson to sign the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916 . It appropriated $ 75 million in federal aid for highway construction during the next 10 years . Reflecting the divided opinion over this idea , the law limited that work to rural post roads , required the states to provide matching funds on a 50 / 50 basis and rationed federal payments to $ 10,000 per mile . The act ’ s restrictions , as well as the disruptions to the domestic economy caused by World War I , greatly hampered the construction and improvement of roads . So too did the antagonistic relationships between many officials of the again renamed Bureau of Public Roads ( BPR ) and the heads of the state highway agencies .
Congress recognized the Federal-Aid Act ’ s flaws and corrected them in a law President Wilson signed in February 1919 . Secretary of Agriculture David Houston
Library of Congress wanted his BPR to accelerate its efforts to help the states build more roads . In April , he appointed Thomas MacDonald as the head of that agency , replacing the recently deceased Logan Waller Page . As Chief Engineer of the Iowa State Highway Commission , MacDonald was quite aware of the adversarial relationships between BPR engineers and the state representatives who were members of the influential American Association of State Highway Officials ( AASHO ). He moved quickly to adjust the BPR ’ s methodologies to mesh more effectively with the needs of his erstwhile colleagues .
Giving a limited amount of federal aid to states that were building roads their political and business leaders wanted was widely regarded as a good idea . Creating a federal agency with the budget and the authority to build a coordinated network of national highways seemed to many to be an even better one . After almost two years of congressional hearings and deliberations , in November 1921 President Warren Harding signed a new Federal Highway Act . This law accommodated different viewpoints by authorizing $ 75 million for the construction of both relatively short stretches of farm-to-market roads sought by local officials and longerdistance highways desired by promotors of a national highway system . In furtherance of the latter intent , it directed each state to designate 7 % of its roadways as “ interstate in character ” and become part of the new network .
During the 1920s , construction companies used a combination of money from federal and state coffers to construct or improve about 90 % of the roads in the officially designated 168,000-mile Federal- Aid System . New roads certainly were needed ; automobile sales surged from 1.6 million units in the first year of the decade to more than 5.2 million in the last . Moreover , the increased traffic from cars , trucks and buses caused roadways to deteriorate faster than anticipated . The states were forced to allocate increasing amounts of money to improving surfaces , re-aligning curvatures , sustaining faster speeds and reducing the potential for accidents .
The Great Depression threatened to shut down what has been called the “ Golden Age of Road Building .” Yet , from 1929 to 1938 , successive Congresses continued to authorize more than a billion dollars for highway construction . In
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