Interstate 50: 50 Years of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate & Defense Highways

INTERSTATE

50 50 YEARS OF THE DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER NATIONAL SYSTEM OF INTERSTATE AND DEFENSE HIGHWAYS

Here’s to those

who paved the way.

On the 50th anniversary of our interstate system, CNH Capital salutes the hardworking people who helped make America mobile. Thanks to their dedication, we enjoy an interstate system that puts our country miles ahead.

Since our beginnings in 1957, CNH Capital has been supporting the growth of our interstate system, providing equipment financing for the roadbuilders who helped pave our bright future.

Without their drive, we couldn’t have ours.

©2006 CNH Capital America LLC. CNH Capital is a trademark of CNH America LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.

www.cnhcapital.com

Fifty years ago, America embarked on one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century with the building of the nation’s Interstate Highway System. New roads connected workers with jobs, families with opportunities and travelers with destinations, so that expanding transportation arteries soon became the lifeblood of cities and communities across the country.

Today, this nearly 47,000-mile road network is a symbol of the freedom that we enjoy as Americans, and a monument to the imagination, skill, and daring of those who made it a reality. And in the same way that the interstate system revolutionized lives and livelihoods in the last century, today it continues to be an engine that drives the American economy.

Understanding what the creation of the interstate has done for the American way of life underscores our challenge for the future – how to run a system that keeps pace with American progress.

Clearly, our challenge has evolved from building the interstate system to making it work better and fighting the traffic that chokes our cities, cuts into economic productivity and keeps Americans away from their families.

Last year, billions of dollars were squandered, billions of hours were lost, and billions of gallons of gas were wasted due to congestion. America can’t afford to be tied up in traffic. We must attack congestion with the same creativity and resolve that drove our predecessors to connect the country a half century ago.

This year, we celebrate the interstate highway network that serves as the backbone of the modern American economy – the strongest, most dynamic and most competitive in the world. And our future charge is clear. We must focus on new and creative ways to design, build, finance and operate the system that will continue to keep Americans and the American economy on the move for the next 50 years.

Sincerely,

Secretary Norman Y. Mineta U.S. Department of Transportation

TRANSIT

AIRPORTS

H I G H W AY S

BRIDGES

MARINE

ENERGY

5 Ce se 0 Y leb r Hi nho ears atin gh we o g wa r f t y Inte he Sy rs st ta em te

Ei

She’ll probably be working for us in about 15 years.

She might head up highway design. Or sculpt a subway system through a major city. For more than 75 years, DMJM Harris has been bringing together the most creative thinkers in every discipline. And as we honor the 50th anniversary of the Eisenhower Interstate System, one of the country’s greatest public works projects and part of our history, we celebrate how the highway system improves the lives of people everyday as a part of the American way of life.

Our project managers understand this legacy, and build teams today that know how to anticipate and address stakeholder issues, put together creative financial solutions and, of course, deliver sound and original engineering results for today’s projects.

No matter how large the project, we have the experience, the knowledge, the resources of AECOM and – most importantly – the people to get it done.

866.433.9001

www.dmjmharris.com

Dear Friends: When the Interstate Highway System was authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, it was projected to cost $25 billion to build over the course of 12 years. Perhaps that was a bit unrealistic when considering a project of its size and importance. When the system was officially regarded as complete in 1991, it had cost $114 billion over the course of 35 years. And, of course, despite the official completion, major work continues and will continue far into the future.

But without a doubt, the highway system has been a terrific investment which has paid great dividends in terms of economic growth and general mobility. Practically every product manufactured in the United States travels by way of the system, and this has helped to make our economy the envy of the world.

Of course, there is much more to be done to keep America on the move. The removal of the last traffic signal on Interstate 90 in Wallace, Idaho on September 15, 1991 may be cited as marking the completion of the system, but in fact, the work will continue at least as long as our economy continues to grow.

Public support for highways is demonstrated by the actions of the millions of people who use them so heavily. America's Interstate Highway System deserves to be celebrated, and it deserves our continued attention to bring it to its full potential.

Sincerely,

Thomas E. Petri Member of Congress

IT’S NOT EASY TO IMPROVE THE WORLD. THESE ARE SOME OF THE BEST AT IT. The Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee is one of the largest transportation projects currently under way in the United States with more than 50 bridge structures. Using MicroStation® Visual Basic for Applications, the designer of these structures combined Bentley products with in-house software solutions in order to streamline the design and production process.

" The newly introduced MicroStation Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) allowed us to deliver bridge design services with incredible efficiency, while maintaining the high level of quality the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is accustomed to receiving from CH2M HILL," said Kevin Willis, bridge engineer at CH2M HILL.

< CH2M HILL Marquette Interchange Design Automation

Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) created its own Electronic Plan Room (EPR) based on Bentley’s Digital InterPlot™ looking for a cost-effective way to deliver plans and specifications to contractors via the Web. UDOT has been able to realize savings of more than $100,000 a year.

“Bentley technology has proven to be a cost-effective, capable, scalable solution for UDOT’s business needs. We see a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship to continue for years to come.” – Utah Department of Transportation

Utah Department of Transportation > Electronic Plan Room

See all of the 2005 BE Awards of Excellence winners at BE.org. © 2006 Bentley Systems, Incorporated. Bentley, BE, the "B" Bentley logo, the BE logo, Digital InterPlot, and MicroStation are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. Other brands or product names are the property of their respective owners.

AMERICAN CONCRETE PAVEMENT ASSOCIATION 5420 Old Orchard Road Suite A100 Skokie, IL 60077 Phone: 847-966-2272

An Open Letter to the Stakeholders of the U.S. Interstate System: On this, the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Interstate system, we join you in commemorating our one-of-a-kind civil transportation infrastructure and honoring the people who have made this unique highway system all that it is today! Let’s also set a vision for the future so that we build upon this legacy and achieve a 100th anniversary every bit as memorable as this golden year.

As we look back, we recognize the names of many leaders that turned Eisenhower’s vision into reality. We also should not forget that there are many thousands of others whose hard work, dedication, entrepreneurial spirit, and sacrifice are only visible through the nearly 47,000 miles of Interstate pavement crisscrossing the United States.

The system built by the hands of these men and women represents so much to all citizens of this country.

The Interstate system underpins the strength of our economy, mirrors our free culture, and facilitates the personal mobility we all enjoy. We owe it to those that came before us to use our ingenuity to raise the awareness of these facts and instill this knowledge into our citizens.

Our work toward the Interstate’s 100th anniversary has just begun. It is for this reason that we in the transportation community must dedicate ourselves to doing whatever it takes to overcome the congestion that is increasingly degrading the quality of service on this great system. Together we must continue to advocate for funding for strategic expansion that keeps up with the increasing vehicles and freight driven by population growth and the global economy.

We must also be mindful that the system is in critical need of repairs and rehabilitation, and to that end, we cannot rest until the pavement preservation needs are in check. Along the way, we need applied research and a new spirit of implementing technology to ensure that we are applying the highest quality standards in construction and preservation without needless delay.

We are proud of the role that concrete pavements played in the first 50 years of the Interstate. The first Interstate was a concrete pavement … and the majority of all sections were originally constructed with concrete pavement. To this day, concrete continues to carry a majority of the loads moved along this great system.

As we look to the future, the concrete pavement industry is committed to the highest levels of quality workmanship, as well as the pursuit of products and processes that continue our legacy as a pavement that is durable, lasting, and “truck tough.” We can think of no better tribute to those whose contributions not only built the Interstate, but continue to make it the best highway system in the world.

Sincerely,

Gerald F. Voigt, P.E. President and CEO

THE DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER NATIONAL SYSTEM OF INTERSTATE AND DEFENSE HIGHWAYS General Eisenhower would be pleased and impressed by the incredible contribution the Interstate System has made to the U.S. economy and the mobility of our military forces. The Interstate connects the “dots” (forts, bases, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, airports, seaports, rail yards, refineries, economic centers, towns and cities across America) that enable our robust economy and provide the foundation for mobility throughout the United States. It is vital to the mission of America’s warfighters and the defense of our Nation. Developing countries are placing significant emphasis on enhancing, improving and expanding their transportation infrastructure. They recognize the importance of a viable transportation network for a growing and expanding economy, and to an improved quality of life for their citizens. It is imperative that we maintain our transportation infrastructure to established standards and continue to enhance our world-class highway transportation capability. A modern, efficient National Transportation System is essential to continued economic growth and personal mobility. We must make the hard choices to maintain our world leadership in transportation, distribution and travel.

Congratulations to the Nation and its highway professionals on the 50th Anniversary of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. You have completed the world’s largest infrastructure project, established the standard for other countries, and changed a Nation. Be proud of your achievements!

Sincerely,

Kenneth R. Wykle LTG, USA (Ret.) President

Addressing the Needs of Financing for Heavy Equipment The Following is our list of approved Assets for Funding: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Above ground fuel tanks Aerial Sign Trucks Aircraft Refueler Truck Asphalt Paver Backhoe Lift Equipment Bulldozer Cement Silo Chipper Chipper Dump Truck Compactor Concrete Mixer Concrete Pump Construction Equipment Cranes Digger Derrick Truck Drill Rigs Flat Bed Truck Fuel/Lube Truck Garbage Truck Grapple Truck Group Support Equipment Propane Trailer

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Motor Grader Mechanic’s Truck Motor Scraper Piggyback Forklift Refined Fuel Delivery Truck Roofing Truck Rough Terrain Forklift Sewer & Septic Tank Street Sweeper Stump Cutter Tow Truck Tractor-Farming Trailers Vacuum Tank Truck Van Delivery Truck Water Truck Water Wagon Water Well Drilling Rig Wheel Loader Work Trucks Yard Tractor Yellow Iron

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

CONTENTS WELCOME LETTERS THE HON. NORMAN Y. MINETA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Secretary of Transportation SEN. JAMES M. INHOFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works SEN. KIT BOND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Chairman, Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure REP. DON YOUNG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chairman, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure REP. THOMAS E. PETRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Chairman, House Subcommittee on Highways, Transit and Pipelines HAROLD LINNENKOHL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 President, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials GERALD F. VOIGT, P.E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 President and CEO, American Concrete Pavement Association PETER T. GRASS, P.E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 President, Asphalt Institute

FEATURES CELEBRATING THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY OF THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

By Tom Kuennen PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN THE INTERSTATE AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Guest editorial by Harold Linnenkohl

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE INTERSTATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

By Tom Kuennen BICYCLES, CARS AND TRUCKS FORCED AMERICANS TO IMPROVE ROADWAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Guest editorial by Bob Bushmeyer

THE DEFENSE (INTERSTATE) HIGHWAY SYSTEM – ESSENTIAL TO OUR NATION’S SECURITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

By Lt. Gen. Kenneth Wykle, U.S. Army (Ret.) A NEW ERA FOR AMERICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

By Tom Kuennen

LT. GEN. KENNETH R. WYKLE, U.S. ARMY (RET.) . . . . . . . . . . 21 President, National Defense Transportation Association

EARLY INTERSTATE CONSTRUCTION ENDURED POLITICAL, FINANCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Guest editorial by Bob Bushmeyer

EDITOR’S FOREWORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

TODAY’S POST-INTERSTATE ERA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

By Tom Kuennen

THE INTERSTATES IN THE HEARTLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

By Tom Kuennen

SHIFTING THE FOCUS OF THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM TO THE NEXT 50 YEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Guest editorial by John Horsley

OPEN-GRADED FRICTION COURSES INCORPORATING ASPHALT-RUBBER ARE THE STRONG, SILENT TYPE . . . . . 111 Guest editorial by Doug Carlson

THE INTERSTATES IN THE EAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

By Tom Kuennen

THE INTERSTATES IN THE WEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

By Tom Kuennen

SUSTAINABLE INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS: THE NEXT 50 YEARS ... AND THEN SOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Guest editorial by Hal Kassoff

THE INTERSTATES: SUCCESS THROUGH INNOVATION . . . 127 Guest editorial by Bill Dorey

THE INTERSTATES IN THE SOUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

By Tom Kuennen

HIGHWAYS SEIZE ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE . . . . . . . . . 130

By Tom Kuennen ROADS AND THE ENVIRONMENT FIND COMMON GROUND WITH ASPHALT RECYCLING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Guest editorial by Stu Murray

INTERSTATE SYSTEM MUCH MORE THAN TRANSPORTATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Guest editorial by Doug Pitcock

ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF HIGHWAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

By Tom Kuennen NEW REVENUE STREAMS NEEDED TO SAVE U.S. HIGHWAY SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Guest editorial by Thomas J. Donohue

TOLLWAYS AND PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS . . . . . . 156

By Tom Kuennen NEW VISION AND FUNDING SOURCES NEEDED FOR AMERICA’S TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Guest editorial by Patrick Jones

INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION IS TRANSFORMING HIGHWAY TRAVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

By Tom Kuennen OUR TRANSPORTATION FUTURE – THE NEXT 50 YEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Guest editorial by Neil Schuster

NEW ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR A NEW CENTURY . . . . . 182

By Tom Kuennen THE ASPHALT INSTITUTE’S HISTORIC ROLE IN THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Guest editorial by Bernie McCarthy, P.E.

RESEARCH WILL REVOLUTIONIZE CONCRETE PAVEMENT DESIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

By Tom Kuennen CONCRETE COMMUNITY IS LOOKING AHEAD TO THE NEXT 50 YEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Guest editorial by Peter J. Deem

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INTERSTATE 50 50 YEARS OF THE DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER NATIONAL SYSTEM OF INTERSTATE AND DEFENSE HIGHWAYS

FAIRCOUNT European Headquarters 5 Ella Mews, Hampstead, London NW3 2NH UK Tel. 44 (0) 207-428-7000 Fax 44 (0) 207-284-2118

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Printing and Origination St. Ives

Administrative Assistants Kenia Perez, Heidi Reis 2006 ŠCopyright Faircount LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of editorial content in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Faircount LLC does not assume responsibility for the advertisements, nor any representation made therein, nor the quality or deliverability of the products themselves. Faircount takes full responsibility for delivery and content other than that contained in advertisements. This publication is produced in cooperation and partnership with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and contains input from AASHTO and other associations and government agencies. However, opinions expressed herein are those of the writer(s) unless so attributed, and do not necessarily reflect the positions or opinions of AASHTO or any other association or agency, or the publisher. Permission to use various images and text in this publication was obtained from the U.S. Department of Transportation, various state DOTs, AASHTO, and other independent organizations, and in no way implies an endorsement by any of these agencies or groups for any claims, representations, products, or services therein.

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EDITOR’S FOREWORD When we were kids growing up in the early Sixties, we used to endure endless traffic jams as we got out of town on camping trips.

The overloaded urban arterials would be backed up for hours on Friday nights as commuters drove home and others got out of town.

We knew we were finally on our way when we got to good old four-lane, divided U.S. 66 and blasted out into the country at 70 mph.

Not too much later we marveled at how much more quickly we could get out of town once they opened those big Interstate highways. Even before then – while they were under construction – we played in their aggregate piles, climbed on equipment, sped our bikes down the virgin, not-yet-trafficked pavements, and came home smeared with mud.

So we kids knew what congestion was, how the Interstates were built, and how the Interstates fixed congestion. But today, decades later, it is the Interstates that need fixing. Today it is our duty to preserve and improve this magnificent public works facility for ourselves and the next bunch of kids.

It won’t be easy. As the story which unfolds in the following pages shows, the revenue streams that sufficed to build the Interstate system will no longer do the job. The demands of increasing traffic, environmental design, social justice considerations, and neverenough-gas-tax-money are limiting the ability of the old paradigms to deliver. Even worse, the concept of the Interstate highway as a high-performance, value-added transportation resource is being forgotten as the Interstate is subsumed into the rest of the infrastructure as “just another highway.”

It doesn’t have to be that way. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Interstate system June 29, 2006, Faircount LLC has published the forward-looking commemorative publication you hold in your hands, and we hope that inside it you will find clues to how the Interstate may be improved in the next 50 years.

We begin by walking you through the development and fruition of the federal-state-private-sector partnership in highway transportation from colonial days through our post-Interstate era. Then, with the cooperation of member DOTs of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), we look at how the system was constructed and exists today in each of our states.

We continue with overviews of how today’s Interstates are contributing to our environment and economy, and how public-private partnerships, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies, and improvements in asphalt and concrete paving media are revolutionizing how Interstates are being built today and will be built tomorrow. And we’ll include a long-needed look at how the Interstates reinforce national security at the same time they serve private-sector needs.

This publication also provides a platform for industry leaders, by invitation, to contribute their thoughts about the Interstate in a series of guest editorials.

Our thanks to Erin K. Grady, Shane Artim, Jennifer Gavin, and Sunny Mays Schust of the AASHTO staff; Richard Weingroff, Doug Hecox, and Brian Keeter, Federal Highway Administration; Wanda Klayman and Neil Gray, International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association; Sabrina Quirarte, ITS America; Bill Davenport, American Concrete Pavement Association; Brian Clark, The Asphalt Institute; and Myron Laible, Outdoor Advertising Association of America, all of whom very kindly shared their time, expertise, and photography to make this project possible.

Our thanks to the Interstate 50 Steering Committee of Rodney Slater, Patton Boggs; Ken Wykle, National Defense Transportation Association; Rodney Pello, American Society of Highway Engineers; James Cagley, American Concrete Institute; and Peter Grass, The Asphalt Institute, who helped get the project going.

Our thanks to our many advertisers, without whose financial support this publication could not have been produced.

And lastly, our thanks to the 50 state DOTs and the District of Columbia, who provided the information we needed to develop the state profiles that appear in this publication, and, joined together as AASHTO, cooperated with us to produce a document we hope will be as meaningful to them as it will be to the industry at large.

Tom Kuennen Tom Kuennen is principal of ExpresswaysOnline.com in suburban Chicago, where he plays a lead role in construction and industrial writing for trade journals, corporations, and national associations.

Prior to starting ExpresswaysOnline.com in 1995, he was editor of Roads & Bridges Magazine and before that, associate editor of Rock Products Magazine, both in the Chicago area.

He's received national recognition for his writing, including the Robert F. Boger Award from the Construction Writers Association, in 1998, 1995, and 1993 (honorable mention in 2003), the American Society of Business Press Editors in 1997, and the Jesse H. Neal Award from the American Business Press, in 1983.

He is a member of the Hot Mix Hall of Fame Committee of the National Asphalt Pavement Association; of the Road Gang, Washington’s transportation fraternity; and is a director of TRIP, The Road Information Program.

29 29

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Federal/State Partnership

Celebrating the

Golden

Anniversary of the Interstate Highway System

By Tom Kuennen Today’s Interstate highway system is the culmination of decades of on-again, off-again federal/state partnership AASHTO PHOTO

I

ts odd numbers run north and south. The even numbers run east and west.

For north and south routes, the lowest numbers are in the West. And for east and west routes, the lowest numbers are in the South.

It sprawls 46,572 miles over a web that connects each of the continental United States’ metropolitan areas with its counterparts in neighboring states, and links the most remote places in our vast nation to the most crowded cities.

It connects Imperial Beach, Calif., in the far southwestern corner of the United States with Houlton, Maine, in the far northeast, and Blaine, Wash., in the far northwest with Miami in the far southeast. Thus it links Mexico to Canada to the Caribbean Sea, and all points in between.

It links city to city, suburb to city, suburb to suburb, farm to market, product to sale, manufacturer to port, warrior to embarkation point, and vacationer to dreamland.

And traffic and fuel supply willing, it does it without a single stop for the traveler.

It’s our Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of its creation. And while only five decades have passed

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Consistency where there was none was an early theme of Interstate highway promotion.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM KUENNEN

Federal/State Partnership

since the enabling legislation was signed and the first dirt was turned, the story of the Interstate system is much older.

Many citizens know that the Interstate system is a “federal” system, and assume that the U.S. government built the Interstate system, just as it did the predecessor U.S. routes, such as the famous U.S. 66. But they’re wrong.

Instead, those highways were built by an evolving, on-again, offagain partnership between the individual states and the federal government. The states built their highways using their own internal taxes, bolstered by federal funds collected from highway users at the gas pump.

Thus state departments of transportation (DOTs) are the builders and owners of the highways, but they can use federal funds collected at the gas pump if the highways meet – at the most basic level – the federal government’s design criteria for geometrics and safety, along with other requirements.

Today we take for granted this partnership of federal and state governments to construct and maintain surface transportation infrastructure, but this partnership never was an accomplished fact.

Instead, it developed over centuries of give-and-take, trust, and cooperation. Here’s how it happened.

Federal Role Never a Given In the nation’s colonial period, there simply were no roads as we know them. Dirt wagon paths and traces connected towns across the landscape, and in urban areas, streets were of mud redolent of horse manure. Freight transportation was almost entirely by water. The interior of the country was reached by river,

This Civil War-era turnpike road in New York State was built in 1862.

By 1902 stone wheel tracks had been added.

constructed. In 1639, the Massachusetts Bay Colony elaborated rights-of-way guidelines and simple construction specifications.

“Under colonial laws patterned after those of the mother country, roadmaking and mending were responsibilities of the local governments: the towns in New England, the counties in other colonies,” wrote the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in its landmark bicentennial history, America’s Highways, 1776-1976.

But money was scarce in those times, and governments had few resources to pay for roadbuilding. Much roadwork was provided as “statute labor,” in which free, slave, or indentured men

The longest route in the Interstate system is I-90, from Seattle to Boston, 3,085.27 miles.

The shortest route is I-97, Annapolis to Baltimore, 17.57 miles. and many of the cities in the interior along the rivers, like St. Louis and Pittsburgh, were founded in colonial times.

However, most of the rivers flowed north to south, yet much of the nation’s commerce moved on an east-west axis. Moreover, the young United States government was determined to sustain commerce by operating a reliable, scheduled mail service. Crude roads were developed to meet this demand.

These roads always were dirt pathways through forests. If heavy materials – such as cannon and ammunition – had to be moved overland, “corduroy” roads were constructed of trees felled and laid side-to-side, on the spot, to keep equipment from sinking into the mud. Eventually, rain would float the logs and disrupt travel. Their successor, the “plank” road, was only marginally better.

From colonial days, roadbuilding always was a local or state undertaking. The first road law dates to 1632, when the General Assembly of Virginia passed a bill authorizing highways to be

were obligated to work for a particular period on the roads, or pay a cash settlement.

In particular, farmers were reluctant to pay taxes to build roads that would be used mostly by outsiders. Where roads were desired, instead of government-sustained roads, private- or public-owned toll roads were established. Tolls were supposed to be used to keep the road in repair, although in practice most roads remained wretched. The term “turnpike” comes from the rotating gates used to keep a traveler off the road until he had paid his toll.

Foremost among these was the Lancaster Pike, constructed in the 1790s. This 62-mile toll road connected Lancaster, Pa., with Philadelphia, and was specified to be 50 feet wide, with a 24-foot center section of wood, stone, gravel, or other hard, compacted surface.

“After 1800, most of the states adopted toll financing for main roads and canals, while retaining the old statute labor system for

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IH 610 from S. of Post Oak to N. of Old Katy Road Houston, Texas

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Federal/State Partnership

ASPHALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

When an Interstate hits a major urban area, beltways around the city carry a three-digit number. These routes are designated with the number of the main route and an even-numbered prefix. To prevent duplication within a state, prefixes go up. For example, if I-80 runs through three cities in a state, routes around those cities would be I-280, I-480, and I-680.

This system is not carried across state lines, so several cities in different states can have a beltway called I-280. local improvements,” FHWA said. “The turnpike movement eventually spread into all the states, and by 1850 there were hundreds of companies operating thousands of miles of roads and canals.”

Jackson Limits Federal Involvement

The Maysville Turnpike veto was a defining moment in the federal-state partnership in roadbuilding, because it established that the federal government would not underThe Feds Build an write roadbuilding of a local Interstate Road character.

In an early example of the Under President Thomas political influence affecting Jefferson, the United States today’s surface transportation acquired the Louisiana Purchase legislation, in Kentucky, Sen. from France in 1803, and Henry Clay proposed a spur overnight doubled in size. from the National Road that Access to “Louisiana,” as it was would bring traffic to the then called, was gained either Bluegrass region, and not unsurthrough forest traces, by headPennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C., is paved with asphalt opposite prisingly, past the front door of ing west along the Ohio River, or the Old Post Office, c. 1900.

Clay’s plantation house. by taking a boat to New Orleans, The Kentucky legislature then up the Mississippi to the incorporated a road company, and Congress passed a bill comMissouri River. A new, national road to the West was needed.

However, President Jefferson was elected on a platform of strong pelling the federal government to capitalize the effort by subscribstates’ rights and a weak central government, and had to grapple ing to 1,500 shares. Jackson pocket-vetoed that bill, stating the with the dilemma of how the federal government would pay for high- road would be purely local in nature, not connect with any other way building, specifically a national road to the West, while not tram- improved area, and lie totally within the Commonwealth of Kentucky. pling states’ rights as provided in the U.S. Constitution.

“If it be the wish of the people that the construction of roads Jefferson’s treasury secretary, Albert Gallatin, hit on the solution when he suggested that 2 percent of income from the sale of pub- and canals should be conducted by the Federal Government,” lic lands be set aside for construction of the National Road. This cut Jackson wrote, “it is indispensibly necessary that a previous later was increased to 5 percent, and in 1806 Congress authorized amendment to the Constitution, delegating the necessary power the construction of a National Road between Cumberland, Md., and and defining and restricting its exercise with reference to the sovWheeling, [West] Virginia. The right-of-way was to be a minimum ereignty of the States, should be made.”

Thus a strong line was drawn between federal on one hand, of 66 feet wide with grades limited to 8.75 percent (compared to current Interstate geometrics of 7 percent). The finished driving and state and local road funding on the other. Although the federlane was 20 feet wide and finished of compacted crushed stone al government would continue to build military roads and provide grants to canals and railroads, that line would not be crossed until and gravel, with drainage ditches on either side.

The National Road was extended to Columbus, Ohio, and plans the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, which launched the “federal” called for it to reach Vandalia, Ill., and ultimately St. Louis, although road system as we know it today. And no constitutional amendthat did not happen. After 1830 – following his veto that year of the ment was necessary.

About this time, former South Carolina Congressman Joel Maysville Turnpike bill – President Andrew Jackson began to “turn back” the National Road to the states, which began to charge tolls. Roberts Poinsett spoke with famed French traveler Alexis de

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Federal/State Partnership

ASPHALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

The Good Roads Movement sparked public and corporate awareness of the benefits of improved and safer roads, and created what we now call the FHWA. Tocqueville about America’s roads, as de Tocqueville toured America in advance of his book, Democracy in America (1835).

“It’s a great constitutional question whether Congress has the right to make anything but military roads,” Poinsett told the Frenchman, as related in correspondence. “Personally, I am convinced that the right exists; there being disagreement, however, practically no use, one might say, is made of it.

“It’s the States that often undertake to open and keep up the roads traversing them,” Poinsett said. “Most frequently these roads are at the expense of the counties. In general our roads are in very bad repair. We haven’t the central authority to force the counties to do their duty. The inspection, being local, is biased and slack. Individuals, it is true, have the right to sue the communities which do not suitably repair their roads; but no one wants to have a suit with the local authority.

“Only the turnpike roads are passable,” he added. “The turnpike system of roads seems to me very good, but time is required for it to enter into the habits of the people. It must be made to compete with the free road system. If the turnpike is much better or shorter than the other, travelers will soon feel that its use is an economy.”

“The result was that such internal improvements as the Maysville Road became prerogatives of the states,” said William L. Richter in Transportation in America (1995). “[This] effectively stifled federal expenditures and helped keep the U.S. government in the black for most of the post-Civil War period.”

The issue of whether the federal government could construct national or interstate roads finally was put to rest in January 1907, when in Wilson v. Shaw, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the U.S. Congress had that right under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution.

A rural road is improved with asphalt prior to 1910. Note the steamrollers building up steam in the background.

Roads and Turnpikes Decline The era of turnpikes, canals, and rivers flourished up to the 1850s, but the advent of the steam-powered railroad put an end to them. By the 1840s, the National Road had already enjoyed its peak, and after the Civil War it competed with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which drove it into oblivion. In the 1920s, the National Road became U.S. 40, and was designated I-70 with the coming of the Interstate system.

In the 1850s it became clear to industrializing America that the railroad was going to provide faster, cheaper, more reliable, and more versatile transportation than either the canals or the turnpikes. Short line railroads – regional ventures connecting towns or navigable water – proliferated through that decade

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and then began to be hooked up to regional and national trunk lines. With the Iron Horse, there was no longer any need to travel by road.

Even as the Civil War (1860-1865) raged, the Transcontinental Railroad – encouraged by public land grants and federal loans – was constructed, and completed in 1869. “Within the next 20 years, four other transcontinental railroads were completed,” said FHWA in America’s Highways. “In 1887 alone, 12,878 miles of track were laid, and by 1900 there were 260,000 miles of railroad in the United States.”

As the turnpikes failed, their infrastructure was assumed by local counties, which maintained them as best they could. “The years between 1850 and 1900 have been called ‘the dark age of the rural road,’” FHWA wrote. “With significant exceptions, these

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Federal/State Partnership

roads were unimproved, or at best, only ditched and graded, yet in the aggregate they represented a mighty public effort, particularly in the West, where population was sparse and the people poor.”

Progressivism Revives Roads This sorry state of affairs would begin to erode as Progressivism (the Progressive era) took hold in American culture and politics, and with it the Good Roads Movement.

“At the turn of the century, the United States entered a period historians have called the Progressive era, a time of widespread reform,” reports the 1991 retrospective of the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO), The States and the Interstate. “One of the problems addressed was the abysmal road network.”

While Mecklenburg County, N.C., instituted a property tax for road maintenance as early as 1879, the Good Roads Movement blossomed in the early 1890s as farmers realized that improved roads could be used as leverage against the hated railroads and their extortionate tariffs, and as weekend bicyclists from the cities – enjoying their new-found leisure time – found the country lanes they wanted to cruise more often than not were morasses of mud.

“Full-fledged bike tours, picnics and other activities became common,” Richter wrote in Transportation in America. “As cyclists roamed the hinterlands, one salient fact came back to them: American roads were in serious disrepair. Ever since the Civil War, roads had been allowed to disintegrate as public concern turned to the railroads.”

“The bicycle is the father of the good roads movement in this country,” Horatio Earle, founder of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, wrote in his book, The Autobiography of “By Gum” Earle (1929). Earle had been an exec-

And the National League for Good Roads was not the only effort. “By 1900, there were over 100 local good-roads associations, and six national bodies,” Richter said.

One of those, the National Good Roads Association, aggressively solicited donations from the public, as well as from civic groups, automobile manufacturers, and road machinery makers. Under the leadership of Col. William Moore, the association developed the concept of the “Good Roads Train,” which would travel the countryside, stopping at towns, extolling the benefits of improved roads, and sharing engineering expertise (today’s road “Technology Transfer”).

The enormity of the challenge was spelled out by Stone in his 1894 tome, New Roads and Road Laws. At the time, Stone was both vice president of the National League for Good Roads and U.S. Special Agent and Engineer for Road Inquiry, Department of Agriculture, where he headed the office.

“The task of transforming a million miles, or more, of bad roads into good ones, a task which involved the disruption of century old systems, the development of new lines of legislation in all the States of our Union, and, in many, even the changing of their constitutions, and which has threatened to require an expenditure running into billions, has commonly been deemed so vast and difficult as to be utterly hopeless; but it suddenly appears that the few good citizens who have had the courage to attempt it, here and there, have reason to be astonished at their own success,” Stone said in 1894. “Not only have the ways and means been found without oppression to the taxpayer, but the actual cost of good road-making has been brought far below the early estimates.”

Federal-State Partnership Today The Good Roads Movement sparked public and corporate awareness of the benefits of improved and safer roads, and created what we now call the FHWA. Most important, it reignited the fed-

The longest east-west route in the Interstate system is I-90, Seattle to Boston, 3,085.27 miles. The longest north-south route is Miami to Houlton, Maine, 1,892.76 miles. utive with LAW, the League of American Wheelmen, which lobbied and leafleted intensively for better roads.

In October 1892, the Good Roads Movement was inaugurated in Chicago at a convocation called by Gen. Roy Stone, a man who would become a titan of American roadbuilding. The first meeting of the National League for Good Roads drew over 1,000 delegates.

And at its second national meeting, in Washington, D.C., in January 1893, the National League advocated the formation of a National Highway Commission. Another forum was held in Chicago in 1893 during the World’s Columbian Exposition.

The culmination of these efforts was the founding in 1893 of the U.S. Office of Road Inquiry – predecessor of today’s FHWA – which would audit the states’ road systems and discern needs.

eral-state roadbuilding partnership, culminating in the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916 and, later, the Federal Aid Highway and Highway Revenue Acts of 1956, which enabled the Interstate system, the anniversary of which we mark this year.

But the roadbuilding partnership also could be rocky. A continuing irritant between the states and the federal government is the contentious donor/donee issue, which pits states that contribute more in federal transportation excise (fuel, tire) taxes than they get back, against states which receive more funding than they contribute.

One such donee state is Wyoming, which can’t generate the state gas taxes it needs to keep its transcontinental Interstates in repair; Interstates used, for example, by trucks hauling produce from California to the East Coast, and which may not even stop in Wyoming to buy fuel.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Federal/State Partnership

Despite the fact that there is no reason to have a federal program unless some states that need them receive more funds than others – the donor/donee issue rises with each surface transportation reauthorization.

Funding Sanctions Endanger Partnership Just as contentious are the highway funding “sanctions” imposed by Congress to force states to adhere to a laundry list of federal policies, even if the U.S. Constitution precludes federal legislation to enforce that policy.

For example, visitors from other countries are surprised to learn the U.S. federal government cannot legislate a national minimum drinking age for alcohol, nor a national speed limit, nor a national seat belt law. Instead, under the Constitution, this type of legislation is relegated to the states. But that doesn’t stop the federal government from trying to impose its policies.

The oldest segment of the Interstate system predates the system. It’s Grand Central Parkway in Queens, N.Y., opened in 1936, and later grafted onto the system as I-278.

In the case of the national minimum drinking age (21) and the national speed limit, Congress imposed sanctions in which after a period of noncompliance, 5 percent of highway funds for the first year, and 10 percent in following years, would be withheld from a noncompliant state.

Therefore, in the name of highway safety, noncompliant states would be denied funds that could be used to make highways safer. In 1987, states and local governments argued vigorously against the National Uniform 21 Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, but it was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Similarly the 55 mph national speed limit act imposed sanctions not only for states that did not pass 55 mph maximum speed limit laws; through a complex formula it penalized those states whose average highway speeds exceeded the limit by a certain percentage. That law was rolled back by Congress.

The model for today is compulsory seat belt use, in which national policy is to require seat belt use, but no funding sanctions are imposed for noncompliance. With the ball in the states’ court, state seat belt laws and educational programs have caused seat belt use to skyrocket in recent years, and the program is deemed a success without sanctions on federal funding.

Games have been played with bread-and-butter funding as well. Until the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), Congress would always obligate fewer highway funds for a fiscal year than either provided by the authorizing legislation or permitted by federal gas taxes collected at the pump.

As the end of the Interstate program approached in the late 1980s, annual grumbling led to outright rebellion, with many donor states demanding “devolution” of the federal program to the states. Congress responded with a “spend-down” of the accumulated “balance” in the Highway Trust Fund, and the tremendously higher funding levels for highways since ISTEA have quelled most of this grousing.

Now the federal-state partnership is going in a new direction, as the private sector is invited by the public sector to become more involved in highway design, construction, material certification, and pavement performance warranties. We’ll discuss this trend later in Interstate 50.

It’s just the latest permutation in the on-again, off-again federal/state partnership that has its roots in America’s colonial era but made possible the Interstate highways.

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Guest Editorial

Public-Private Partnerships in the Interstate Age

By Harold Linnenkohl

The unparalleled mobility provided by the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways over the past 50 years has driven America’s economic growth and world competitiveness. As we look ahead to the next 50 years, two challenges loom large: first, how to fund the preservation and modernization of the 47,000-mile system already in place, so it can continue to serve future generations; and second, in light of the dramatic growth in population and travel that has taken place and is expected to increase still further in the decades ahead, how to add the new capacity needed.

In fact, the future is already at hand as states strive to finance transportation projects in an era of financial constraints and rising prices. The “Highway, Bridges and Transit Conditions and Performance Report” released by the U.S. DOT in March 2006 shows that annual highway capital spending needs to ramp up from the $68.2 billion invested by federal, state, and local governments in 2004 to $118.9 billion to meet national needs. Until it does so, just to meet the backlog of Interstate preservation needs will require nearly all of the capital resources currently available.

Confronting the challenge of how to add the new capacity needed, states are seeking ways to supplement the traditional fuel-tax revenues that have long served as the primary transportation finance method. Public Private Partnerships financed through tolls have emerged as an option that engages the expertise and capital of the private sector.

The idea of public-private partnerships is not really a new concept in U.S. transportation thinking. In the late 1860s, the Transcontinental Railroad came into being through a partnership between the railroad industry and the federal government. Toll roads preceded free roads in the early days of the nation. But today’s partnerships are now global, attracting private investment from around the world, as in the case of the Chicago Skyway. The City of Chicago entered into a $1.8 billion, 99-year lease with a private firm. The Spanish and Australian consortium running the concession is charging tolls on the Skyway to not only turn a profit, but maintain and upgrade the roadway.

Earlier this year, the state of Indiana signed an agreement to turn the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road over to a consortium that will operate it for the next 75 years. Under the lease, the Spanish-Australian consortium CintraMacquarie would pay the state $3.85 billion up front and be responsible for operating and maintaining the tollway.

Probably one of the most ambitious public-private partnership projects is taking place in Texas, where Lone Star State legislators understand that good transportation is vital to expanding their economy. The Trans-Texas Corridor 35 Project is planned to stretch more than 500 miles from Oklahoma, through Texas, and to the Mexican border. It will largely follow the route of the current Interstate 35, but will have lanes for vehicle travel, rail, and utilities, with a private firm operating the concession, collecting tolls for 50 years to pay for the project. The Spanish firm of Cintra has joined forces with the Texas contractor Zachary to fund an initial $7.2 billion portion of this corridor.

U.S. firms – such as United Infrastructure of Washington, building the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the Fluor Corporation, building HOT lanes in Virginia – also are actively engaged in public-private ventures, using private U.S. equity rather than state-backed bonds to finance facilities. Today, some 23 states have enacted legislation to allow the formation of public-private partnerships, and other states are examining whether this is a tool they should also consider. The Federal Highway Administration in November issued a manual to serve as a one-stop information resource. And an Internet search will yield you more than 59 million hits on PPPs. So, as the nation and state transportation officials plan for the next 50 years of the Interstate Highway System, public-private partnerships are clearly among a variety of funding sources available to the nation to keep Americans moving.

Harold Linnenkohl is 2006 president, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and commissioner, Georgia Department of Transportation.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Battle for the Interstate ASHPALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

THE STRUGGLE for the Interstate

By Tom Kuennen It was a long journey from the Good Roads Movement to the Interstate system, but the federal role persevered

O

nly six decades elapsed from the time the Good Roads Movement began to pull America up out of the mud (1892) and the year the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways was launched (1956).

Only four decades separate the revival of the federal role in roadbuilding – the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916 – and the Interstate era.

But those decades saw the growth of federal involvement in roadbuilding, leading to the greatest public works project in American history. They also saw economic boom, bust, and three wars, all of which had their own effects on the nascent federal

highway system. But they predated Eisenhower’s signature, which in 1956 kick-started the Interstate system’s construction. Here’s how it happened.

‘Good Roads’ Sparked National Role The Good Roads Movement of the 1890s saw an explosion in the growth of local and national lobbying groups for improved roads.

In that time, roads principally were managed by local counties and townships, with very little state, and no federal, entanglement.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Battle for the Interstate

ASHPALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

Today’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways comprises 1.2 percent of the total road network, but carries 21 percent of the traffic.

Virtually all interstate passenger and freight shipment – with the exception of boats and barges – took place by rail, and roads were underfunded and neglected.

After decades of dominance by the railroad, the condition of the nation’s roads was so unknown that in 1893 – in the wake of the Good Roads furor – Congress established the Office of Road Inquiry (ORI) as part of the Department of Agriculture, with Good Roads advocate Gen. Roy Stone as U.S. special agent and engineer in charge of road inquiry. On behalf of the rural population, the office would inventory road conditions and transfer technology on Good Road construction practice to the hinterlands.

The ORI was reconstituted in 1899 as the Office of Public Road Inquiry (OPRI). Now headed by Martin Dodge, the agency continued the educational and technology transfer enterprise started by Stone.

In 1905, Congress established a permanent Office of Public Roads (OPR) to be headed by a chief engineer, Logan Waller Page. OPR would be replaced by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in 1918.

The Good Roads’ lobbying and demonstrated needs began to bear fruit. “Legislatures began to understand that much of travel on country roads was between counties, and hence statewide in nature,” said William L. Richter in Transportation in America. New Jersey formed an early highway department in 1892, and Massachusetts in 1893.

This progress notwithstanding, by 1906 only 16 state road agencies had been established. But that was changing. “By 1917 almost all states had a state highway commission operating on the Massachusetts example,” Richter wrote in 1995.

Postal Roads Anticipate Federal Role In the meantime, an early federal role to provide improved mail service and road improvements unfolded during the Good Roads era, as Rural Free Delivery (RFD) became popular.

Prior to RFD, mail was delivered only to addresses in urban areas; residents outside of cities had to go into town to get mail.

Beginning in 1896, the U.S. Post Office Department began limited RFD service in West Virginia, and the immensely popular program soon was expanded.

However, RFD routes had to be on roads that were at least gravel-surfaced, or surfaced with macadam, layers of coarse, intermediate, and fine aggregate tightly compacted and bound. The improvement of the roads was up to the local governments, and RFD brought pressure on state and local legislatures to improve roads.

In 1903, Rep. Walter P. Brownlow of Tennessee introduced a bill that would provide $20 million for RFD route improvements, but it was not made law. However, within nine years, RFD service would get the federal government back into local roadbuilding.

“While several states had ongoing programs, there was no federal highway program until 1912, when federal funds were

Opposite: Asphalt paving in the 1920s. Above: Asphalt pavement resurfaces a rural concrete highway in this 1940s photo. provided for [RFD] highways for the first time since the early 19th century,” said The States and the Interstates, a retrospective history produced by the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO, 1991). The experimental program, engineered by Logan Waller Page, provided $500,000 – with matching funds from counties – to improve post roads for RFD service.

It was not until 1914 that the first federally subsidized RFD route opened, in Alabama, and the federal government’s involvement with funding postal road improvements lasted for only four more years. Still, the lobbying and compromising that resulted in the RFD subsidies softened the way for the federal aid legislation that would appear in 1916.

“The program quickly demonstrated the difficulties of working with thousands of counties, and convinced Page that any largescale highway program could only be administered through state and federal cooperation,” AASHTO said in its history. Two major themes emerged from this program: the founding of AASHTO in 1914, as the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), and the integration of state/federal planning and partnership as the foundation for the future Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Battle for the Interstate

FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION PHOTO

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LAW and in 1902 founded ARM, the American Road Makers, predecessor of today’s American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).

ARM’s founding premise was to obtain federal money for state construction and ownership of a “Capital Connecting Government Highway,” an interstate highway system connecting every state capital and the national capital. Earle maintained the system would be the “Eighth Wonder of the World” and that it also would help secure national defense.

ARM lobbied intensively for the Capital Connecting Government Highway and, in 1907, developed a National Reward Road Bill, which was promoted by ARM in Congress. This bill would have gotten rid of the existing Office of Public Roads and decentralized the federal system. States were to have been compensated (“rewarded”) with federal grants per mile of improved road for constructing roads that met standard specifications.

ARM’s project failed, but contributed to the dialogue on the future role of federal funding for highways. Still, the concept of a uniform, coast-to-coast, Interstate highway system would not come to fruition until 1956.

Federal Role Cemented in 1916 Act

Top: President Dwight D. Eisenhower reviews a report put together by the Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program (Clay Committee, January 1955). Seen behind the president are, from left, Gen. Lucius D. Clay; Frank Turner, Bureau of Public Roads; Steve Betchel, Bechtel Corp.; Sloan Colt of Bankers' Trust Company; Bill Roberts, Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co.; and Dave Bech, International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Above: A depressed urban highway in Toll Roads and Free Roads (1937) anticipates modern urban expressways.

Early Plan for an Interstate System As the RFD program slowly brought the concept of federal funding for county and state road improvements to the forefront, one of the first permutations of an Interstate highway system began to be promoted around the country.

This was the brainstorm of Horatio “By Gum” Earle, a Good Roads promoter who was intensely involved in the venerable bicycle association, the League of American Wheelmen (LAW).

Seeing the unbridled growth in American automobile ownership, and convinced that the automobile – not the bicycle – would drive road improvements in the new 20th century, Earle quietly left

Even as policy makers and engineers debated the federal role in local and state road construction, tremendous pressure to do something about the roads came from a different direction: the new class of automobile and truck owners.

Government figures show that automobile registrations skyrocketed from 458,000 in 1910, to 2.3 million in 1915, and to 8.1 million in 1920. Trucks registered rose at a greater rate, from 10,000 in 1910, to 1.1 million in 1920. America’s obsession with material goods and technology – coupled with economic prosperity that would continue until 1929 – fueled the development of better roads and federal government involvement in building them.

The result was the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916, which created a steady federal highway program and was the forerunner of all surface transportation legislation to follow, including the 1956 act that funded the creation of the Interstate system. The act embodied cooperation between federal and state (not county or municipal) road agencies and maintained the rural focus of the RFD program.

The bill authorized $75 million over five years, with $5 million in the first fiscal year, increasing to $25 million in the final year of the bill. It provided 50 percent funding for roads with a 50 percent state match, and the money was to be used to improve RFD post roads. Significantly, if a state wanted to participate, the bill required the state to establish a road agency run by approved engineers.

“The states were to plan, build, and maintain the roads, while the Bureau of Public Roads acted as inspector, encouraging efficiency, and preventing waste,” AASHTO said in its 1992 history.

The inequities of a federal program in terms of taking from one group and giving to another shook the debate over the bill.

Opponents of the bill were furious that the cities, which generated

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Battle for the Interstate

Title II of the Highway Revenue Act of 1956 created the Highway Trust Fund as a dedicated source for the Interstate system. Revenue from federal gas and other motor-vehicle user taxes is credited to the Highway Trust Fund to pay the federal share of Interstate and all other federal-aid highway projects. In this way, the act guaranteed construction of all segments on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, thus satisfying one of President Eisenhower’s primary requirements, namely that the program be self-financing without contributing to the federal budget deficit. a great part of a state’s revenue, got nothing from the bill. But rural interests said that the cities already were benefiting from federal subsidies, such as federal building and harbor construction.

After the dust settled, the 1916 act was deemed a failure. Munificent state highway bond issues in 1915 and 1916, in addition to the anticipation of the big expenditures of the 1916 act, brought many inexperienced road contractors into the road business. Many states did not have plans ready, and in some states matching funds weren’t available until late in the season.

America’s entry into World War I the following year led to enormous manpower and materials shortages, and federal red tape strangled projects. Additionally, there was a shortage of trained engineers, contractors, and construction equipment. Because the act did not require improved roads to connect to each other, improvements were isolated. By March 1919, only 13 miles of federal aid road had been completed.

MacDonald Transforms Program As the war in Europe wound down, a new magisterial figure appeared in American road history: “The Chief,” Thomas H. MacDonald. More than anyone at the time, MacDonald was the innovator many Americans can thank for the vision of the Interstate system.

“When Thomas MacDonald arrived in Washington in 1919, he found confusion and discouragement in the Bureau of Public Roads and impatience in Congress,” wrote Tom Lewis in Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life (1997). “The Bureau of Public Roads had

spent only about $500,000 of the $75 million Congress had voted it in 1916 ... [and] the little money it had spent brought controversy.”

MacDonald eliminated the red tape that had entangled inspection procedures and reaffirmed the importance of cooperation in the federal aid program. “He effectively used AASHO to build solid bridges to state highway agencies, and suggested changes in the law that eliminated many criticisms of the program,” AASHTO said in The States and the Interstate. “Most importantly, MacDonald recommended that federal-aid funds be used to build a formal system of primary and secondary roads, not just post roads. This system was to total 7 percent of each state’s road mileage, subject to BPR’s approval.”

MacDonald also introduced another paradigm into roadbuilding. He and his allies in the state road agencies felt that user fees – gasoline and other motor vehicle taxes – should be dedicated to roadbuilding and maintenance. Thus, in 1919, the first state gas tax was instituted in Oregon, with others following shortly thereafter.

The Federal-Aid to Roads Act of 1916 expired after five years, and MacDonald worked assiduously to make the successor bill – the Federal Highway Act of 1921 – a winner. “[Thomas H. MacDonald] snowed opponents with facts and figures while remaining apolitical,” wrote Stephen B. Goddard in Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the American Century (1994). “His credibility with Congress was enormous. Typically, MacDonald spewed forth a barrage of charts, graphs, and tables to accompany his customary blizzard of facts, far beyond the capacity of any member to absorb but which nevertheless left

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the subtle, subliminal message: ‘This man knows what he’s talking about.’”

MacDonald’s 1921 bill forced states to establish a state highway system, part of which had to be interstate in character. The act provided funds for a limited, interconnected system, and required minimum engineering standards.

It passed Congress in November 1921, and results were seen immediately. In 1922, nearly 14,000 miles of the federal aid system were improved, and by July 1925, 46,486 miles, or over one-quarter of the system, had been brought up to a good standard.

Eisenhower Sees the Need in Person In the meantime, the boom in auto ownership spurred interest in motor tourism, and in 1913 an enterprising group of businessmen established what may be considered America’s first transcontinental route, the Lincoln Highway.

The Lincoln Highway was simply a designation of a 3,300-mile assemblage of existing roads in all different conditions, but it fired imaginations and stimulated commerce as service stations, inns, campgrounds, shops, and stores appeared to serve tourists. The Lincoln Highway began in New York City and traveled through Pittsburgh, south of Chicago, to Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, and Reno before terminating in San Francisco.

Another such tourist route was the Dixie Highway, promoted by Carl Fisher, who also backed the Lincoln Highway.

The Dixie Highway stretched some 5,700 miles, from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., to south of Miami, with numerous spurs and feeders.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Battle for the Interstate

The FHWA’s predecessor – the Bureau of Public Roads – also designated Interstate routes in Alaska and Puerto Rico. But there’s a big difference; unlike the mileage in Hawaii and elsewhere, the mileage in Alaska and Puerto Rico is exempt from meeting Interstate design standards. Alaska’s Interstate highways are designated A-1, A-2, A-3, and A-4, totaling 1,082 miles, while Puerto Rico’s routes are designated PRI-1, PRI-2, and PRI-3, and total 250 miles.

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FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMININSTRATION PHOTO

The Lincoln Highway faded in the Boom in Limited-Access late 1920s after federal route desigHighways nation appeared, but not before most of it was traveled by a young U.S. But in the 1920s motorists wanted Army officer fresh from World War I, highways not for civil defense, but to drive in an Army caravan that captured the fast and safely to new horizons. It was in attention of the entire nation: Lt. Col. the 1920s that limited-access highways Dwight D. Eisenhower and the First gained popularity in America.

Transcontinental Motor Train.

These limited-access highways first This caravan left Washington, D.C., appeared in American cities, and they were on Monday, July 11, 1919, and travbolstered as public works projects during eled 3,250 miles across roads of the doldrums of the Great Depression every imaginable condition. The con(1929-1940). In urban areas, they were voy was more than two miles long, built using local funds, although that with 81 vehicles, including trucks, changed with the Depression. “With the cars, motorcycles, ambulances, Depression, the cities sought state and fedmobile kitchens, and repair trucks. eral funds for urban road repairs and for “Two months later they arrived in San municipal construction programs,” AASHFrancisco, having averaged just five TO wrote. “Reluctantly, state legislatures miles per hour,” wrote Pete Davis in This map of Baltimore from 1937's Toll Roads and assigned their highway departments to American Road: The Story of an Epic Free Roads depicts a system of urban highways that build and maintain ‘the urban extensions’ Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn remains basically unchanged today. of state highway systems.” of the Motor Age (2002).

In New York City and Long Island, While Ike and his comrades were not the first persons to motor Robert Moses began constructing his magnificent system of parkcoast-to-coast, never had the journey been undertaken with such ways. Kansas City taxed property owners for the funds to build its publicity and by so large a convoy. The trip was an adventure, a cir- sprawling parkways. cus, a PR coup, and a war game all rolled into one, Davis wrote.

The story is repeated throughout the United States: In the L.A. “As road conditions worsened, it also became a daily battle of basin, drivers on the Pasadena Freeway still use its superb Art Deco sweat and labor, guts and determination.” tunnels. In St. Louis, the Red Feather Expressway, now I-64, took a The trip focused America’s attention on the need for good page from Moses in slicing right-of-way from existing parkland. And roads and provided a big boost for the nascent 1921 federal road Chicago’s sparkling Lake Shore Drive is a monument to the days of act. But just as important, it gave Ike an inkling of how important urban expressway building. it was for national security to have good roads available for moveBut ramps, overpasses, and controlled access were not conment of men and materiel in case of war emergency, when rail- fined to urban expressways. In Pennsylvania, far-thinking engineers roads might be tied up or destroyed. and politicians created America’s first superhighway, the “While the ‘old convoy’ started Eisenhower ‘thinking about Pennsylvania Turnpike. good, two-lane highways,’ the autobahns of Germany made him “The turnpike does not extend outside Pennsylvania, yet its influ‘see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land,’” Lewis ence reaches across the nation in the form of the 43,000-mile wrote in Divided Highways, quoting Eisenhower himself. While Interstate highway system,” boasts the Pennsylvania Turnpike bombing could quickly immobilize a railway, the autobahns were Commission in its history, The Pennsylvania Turnpike (1995). “History much harder to destroy. Little wonder that in the 1950s, Ike saw shows that from an engineering and motoring standpoint, the turndivided, limited-access superhighways as a way to quickly evac- pike was the direct conceptual predecessor of the Interstate system.” uate a city in case of nuclear attack, and just one more reason to The turnpike was financed through tolls and revenue bonds, not build an Interstate system. fuel or property taxes. Following construction from 1938-1940,

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

ASPHALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

Battle for the Interstate

The Highway Users Salutes the Interstate Pioneers We pledge our resolve to them to keep America moving.

Material hauling in the 1930s. The size of the Interstate program would bring new technologies to roadbuilding. motorists of the late Depression drove from surrounding states just to drive on the new superhighway. The era of the expressway had come to America.

The Great Depression had a murderous effect on American business, but road construction did not suffer as did other commerce. Local make-work projects kept workers busy, and a series of federal emergency relief and recovery acts sent federal dollars to roadbuilding projects, supplementing the conventional federal aid authorizations. The industry, however, had to fend off attempts to seize highway fuel taxes and use them for other relief efforts.

National recovery accelerated toward the end of the 1930s, but World War II put an end to the Depression altogether – and almost put an end to road construction. As total war raged overseas, roadbuilding in the United States came to a near-halt. Oil for gasoline, lubricants, and asphalt was absorbed almost entirely by the armed forces. Gas-rationing coupons remain an icon of those sorry days, as government programs urged consumers to curtail “unneccessary” travel. Cement, aggregates, and steel that would have built highways and bridges were used to build military facilities, warships, and tanks. Engineers and laborers who would have built the roads went overseas to fight and die.

Birth of the Interstate Network But even during the nadir of road construction during the war, planning for roads continued. Fearful that the Depression would return after the war concluded, lobbying groups pressed for a revived postwar highway program.

As early as 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the BPR under MacDonald to prepare a feasibility report on proposals to build transcontinental toll roads. The result was a landmark report, Toll Roads and Free Roads, which stated that such roads could not be self-sustaining, and instead recommended a separate network of high-performance “free” highways that would supplement the existing federal-aid primary system and urban roads. MacDonald’s network of 1 percent of the nation’s road mileage would carry 20 percent of the traffic (today’s Interstate comprises 1.2 percent of the network

www.highways.org 47

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Battle for the Interstate

The 44,629 miles of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways – as it’s now officially designated – represent the largest public works project in U.S. history, and perhaps the world.

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OREGON DOT PHOTO

Exacerbating the situation was and carries 21 percent of the trafthe unexpected outbreak of the fic). “This proposal was the direct Korean War (1950-1953) and the ancestor of the Interstate system,” nightmare of world Communism AASHTO wrote in The States and undermining U.S. interests around the Interstates. the world and at home. The Korean The proposal also was imporWar focused the need for defense tant because until Toll Roads and highways, and military officers Free Roads, the BPR simply had were outspoken in supporting the followed the states’ leads in highneed for an Interstate system. way planning; It was the first time Powerful Hearst Newspapers that the federal government had also stoked the fire. In 1952, established a uniquely Interstate William Randolph Hearst, Jr., chairsystem based on its own traffic man of Hearst Newspapers, surveys and engineering.

During the war, the plan was fur- In 1954, the Jacksonville Grade in Oregon challenged drivers. The assigned an editor to cover nothing but the need for better, uncongestther refined in the report “Interregional coming Interstate system would simplify cross-country travel. ed roads, with the articles to run in Highways,” released in 1943 and distributed generally in 1944. “Interregional Highways” called for a 39,147- all Hearst papers. From late 1952 through 1955, on the eve of the 1956 act creating the Interstate, the Hearst papers printed nearly mile interstate-type system, with a 20-year life expectancy.

By war’s end, in November 1945, MacDonald, now U.S. 3 million lines on the highway problem, enough to fill 1,229 full Commissioner of Public Roads, was able to write, “The much-talked-of newspaper pages.

Eisenhower succeeded Truman in 1953, and MacDonald left post-war highway program, calling for an outlay of $1,500,000,000 in federal funds on a matching basis over a three-year period ... has the BPR, having served as “The Chief” of BPR through seven presadvanced beyond the discussion stage and soon many projects will be idential administrations. In August 1954, eager to get the ball rolling, Ike asked retired Gen. Lucius D. Clay to establish a commitin process of construction.” tee to look at speeding up the construction of MacDonald’s Interstate system. On Jan. 11, 1955, the Clay Committee presentThe Postwar Boom Drives Traffic ed to Eisenhower its plan, which included a Federal Highway The feared postwar depression never appeared. Instead, returning Corporation that would handle $2.5 billion of highway financing G.I.s set up households in crowded cities, then constructed homes on annually. But a bill based on the Clay Committee plan was defeatsuburban tracts and drove to the central city for work. In the meantime, ed by the Senate in May 1955 and by the House that July.

“The nation badly needs new highways,” Eisenhower said folMacDonald had demonstrated in Toll Roads and Free Roads that most lowing defeat of the bill. “The good of our people, of our economy, “rural” traffic actually was intercity traffic.

“Automobile and truck traffic increased at a phenomenal pace,” and of our defense requires that construction of these highways wrote Mark H. Rose in Interstate: Express Highway Politics, 1938- be undertaken at once.”

Major elements of the Clay Committee Report eventually were 1989 (1990). “In 1945, about 31 million vehicles of all sorts were registered: in 1946, state officials listed more than 34.3 million; and by abandoned, and 1956 compromise bills – derived from legislation authored by Reps. Hale Boggs of Louisiana and George Fallon of 1950, they had registered 49 million, including 8.6 million trucks.”

As prosperity returned and tax coffers filled, and as auto and truck Maryland, and Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee – were passed. The traffic exploded, the highway establishment turned its eyes to fulfill- final legislation was signed by Eisenhower on June 29, 1956.

These Federal Aid Highway and Highway Revenue Acts of ment of MacDonald’s plan. For this system, articulated in Toll Roads and Free Roads, limited access design was embraced. “Alignments 1956 launched a 13-year construction period beginning July 1, were to be contoured to accommodate higher speed with greater safe- 1956, that was to be paid for mostly on a pay-as-you-go basis. The ty,” AASHTO said. “Dual carriageways would be built in each direction, acts provided for a 90:10 federal/state share of Interstate conso that slow traffic could be passed without delay or hazard. struction, and a 50:50 share for primary, secondary, and urban Intersections would be grade-separated to eliminate cross traffic. And projects, replacing the old short-term federal aid to states on a all elements of design would be engineered for compatibility with trav- 50:50 basis.

And construction of the Interstate system began. el speeds as great [as] 70 mph.”

Guest Editorial

Bicycles, Cars and Trucks Forced Americans to Improve Roadways

By Bob Bushmeyer

Difficulty of travel was a major issue for Americans of the 19th century, from Lewis and Clark’s grueling cross-country trek through the Louisiana Purchase territory in 1804, to the rigors of the Pony Express and the building of the transcontinental railroad system in the 1860s, and on into the Industrial Age. By the century’s end, America’s culture and economy was dominated by the need to move people and goods over vast distances reliably and efficiently.

Where commerce flourished, so did communities.

Riverbank communities, such as St. Louis, New Orleans, and others along the Mississippi River, drew on river commerce while the rails fed cities like Chicago, Kansas City, and Denver. Communities in outlying areas served neither by railroads nor rivers relied primarily on horses or foot. Roads were little more than heavily-used trails or wagon ruts. It was a new mode of transportation – the bicycle – that helped bring smooth roads to such communities.

The call for smooth, reliable roads by bicycle groups like the League of American Wheelmen led to the passage of laws to improve roads across the country.

Congress created the Office of Road Inquiry, which was later renamed the Office of Public Road Inquiries, and spent much of the turn of the 20th century showing America the potential for smooth roads and the techniques for making them possible.

By 1904, the United States had only 2,151,570 miles of roads – most of which were rural and unpaved – and nearly 55,000 automobiles using them. The next decade saw numerous efforts by Congress and the White House to properly fund a more sophisticated highway system for the young, industrious nation.

World War I limited the supply of men and materials available for roadwork, which was badly needed. Railroads were unable to handle all war shipments, giving the fledgling trucking industry the opportunity to fill the void – with even the best roads suffering under the strain.

Around the time when President Warren G. Harding enacted the Federal Highway Act of 1921, a highway improvement boom began that coincided with the continuing growth in auto travel. America had nearly 11 million

automobiles and trucks registered that year, and returning soldiers were buying cars – with new colors and new features – like never before. As auto-touring became fashionable, campsites and filling stations began springing up all over. By the end of the decade, almost every family in America had a car. The nation’s improving road system had become a key contributor to the nation’s economy.

Congestion was becoming a problem in urban areas, while the higher speeds possible in the more powerful cars of the time combined with out-of-date highway designs contributed to rising safety problems nationwide.

Proposals to build a network of superhighways for the United States had become commonplace. After years of proposals in varying degrees of complexity and financial viability, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office, and the Interstate system had its strongest advocate.

As a young officer in 1919, Eisenhower participated in the first transcontinental army convoy, which took nearly two months to go from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, and instilled in him the value of good two-lane roads. During World War II, he had recognized the value of Germany’s efficient autobahn network. Given his experiences, Eisenhower was committed to providing such highways for the United States. Over the next several years, he worked with Congress to launch the network so desperately needed by America’s 50 million vehicles.

By 1956, Congress approved a plan for a 41,000-mile National System of Interstate and Defense Highways to be financed through a “Highway Trust Fund,” which directed highway user tax revenue to highway purposes. In so doing, Eisenhower ushered in the Interstate era and completed a saga that began 80 years before with dissatisfied bicycle riders. He completed America’s transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial superpower.

While the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways is now more than 46,000 miles long, America’s network of highways will continue to grow as it adapts to the needs of a changing America.

Bob Bushmeyer is a long-time observer of the highway construction and maintenance industry.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Defense and the Interstates

The DEFENSE (Interstate) Highway System – ESSENTIAL to Our Nation’s SECURITY

By Lt. Gen. Kenneth R. Wykle, U.S. Army (Ret.)

F

ifty years ago, one of the most critical logistical infrastructure assets for the deployment of the United States Armed Forces was created. Now called the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, it has served as the foundation on which defense mobility, domestic commerce, and travel have come to depend. From the original objective of “getting the farmers out of the mud” to playing an integral part in today’s corporate and military “just-in-time delivery” philosophies, the Interstate system has significantly advanced the nation’s economic and defense movement capabilities.

The military had a significant impact in the creation of the Interstate system. It began in 1919 when Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a young Army officer, convoyed from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, Calif., over the course of two months. Later in World War II, he observed firsthand the benefits of the German autobahn system. Together, these experiences solidified his logistical philosophy.

He envisioned an interconnected, high-speed, limited-access highway system in the United States. Years later, as president of the United States, he implemented his vision through the creation of the Interstate system, which was authorized by law in the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act. The military also had significant influence on the final configuration (map) of the Interstate system. In 1922, the Army developed the first map of roads important to national defense. Referred to as the Gen. John (Blackjack) “Pershing” map, it helped in the identification of Interstate routes. Later, through cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (then called the Bureau of Public Roads) and the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), the Department of Defense (DoD) participated in the development of comprehensive Interstate design standards. These

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Defense and the Interstates

standards were needed to meet military requirements for the loadbearing strength of bridges, clearances for overpasses/bridges, and lane widths.

The DoD’s mission is to provide the military forces needed to protect our country, to deter war, and, should deterrence fail, fight and win our nation’s wars in order to ensure our freedoms. A critical enabler for this mission is a strong defense transportation capability. Public highways – and primarily the Interstate system – are key components of the overall defense transportation system (DTS).

It provides the capability for the military to quickly move significant numbers of troops and equipment from forts and bases to airports and seaports of embarkation. This capability enables the United States to project military power around the world in support of our national interest.

The importance of the Interstate system to the DoD became evident in the 1970s, during the rail consolidations, bankruptcies,

continued on page 208

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DOD PHOTO BY SENIOR MASTER SGT. MIKE ARELLANO, U.S. AIR FORCE

A convoy of military vehicles crosses floodwaters on Interstate 10 to move Texas Air National Guard Security Forces from Francis Gaudet Elementary School to Loyola University in New Orleans, La., on Sept. 11, 2005. Department of Defense units were mobilized as part of Joint Task Force Katrina to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster-relief efforts in the Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Interstate highways are vital in times of national emergency.

and associated rail mileage reductions. During that time, the DoD was assured through the robustness and redundancy of the highway system, and remaining rail network, that military troops and materiel could continue to be transported expeditiously. Today, the Interstate system remains a critical link in supporting current and future mobility and logistical requirements of the military. It continues to effectively support defense highway movement needs in both peace and war. Military units with mobilization sites located within 400 miles of their airports or seaports of embarkation generally convoy by Interstate highway to these locations.

Gen. Eisenhower observed first-hand the limitations of the U.S. highway system as he convoyed across the country in 1919.

Because of his experiences and subsequent implementation of his vision, today’s military convoys can move quickly and efficiently throughout the United States. This was demonstrated during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm (DS/DS), Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. The Interstate system and other connecting U.S. highways supported military logistics by providing high-speed, limited-access means to quickly mobilize and deploy soldiers and their equipment to ports of embarkation. By the end of DS/DS, more than a half million troops, 3.1 million tons of unit equipment and dry cargo, and 6.1 million tons of petroleum products had been moved to the theater of operations. Furthermore, the redeployment of units and equipment involved the return of more than 450 shiploads of cargo. All of this returned materiel was distributed to forts and bases throughout the United States. The Interstate system and connecting highways were critical in efficiently moving these personnel and equipment to the designated locations. In addition, the Interstate and other major highways played an equally important role in supporting training requirements for Reserve and National Guard forces by allowing expeditious movement of military convoys to training sites.

The Interstate design standard requiring 16-foot vertical clearances under bridges has proven its value. This design standard was originally based on military need. It has allowed the DoD to utilize the Interstate for moving its oversized equipment. The DoD continues to emphasize the importance of maintaining this 16-foot clearance and replacing sub-standard structures in order to support current and future military equipment. In addition to the military benefit, maintaining this clearance is necessary for interstate commerce because manufacturers are finding it more cost-effective to build larger pieces of equipment at the plant for ultimate shipment via the highways to consumers.

While the Interstate system is the primary focus for DoD public highway needs, there are other public highways that support the defense requirement. The entire defense public highway network is referred to as the Strategic Highway Network (STRAHNET). STRAHNET includes the Interstate system (46,730 miles), about 15,000 miles of additional major non-Interstate highways, and about 2,000 miles of connectors providing access to some 200 important military installations and ports. STRAHNET and STRAHNET Connectors were incorporated into the National Highway System (NHS) through

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Building the System

FOR AMERICA

By Tom Kuennen In 1956, Interstate construction begins

T

he launch of the Interstate program in 1956 finally let states and their roadbuilding partners put their planned public works projects in motion, nearly all of which had been put off since the United States’ entry into World War II in 1941.

Roadbuilding was depressed through the war years, and barely increased in subsequent years, up to the launch of the system.

As a result, congestion began plaguing America’s cities: Rural areas remained poorly accessible, and transportation-driven commerce suffered.

That all ended in 1956, as the Interstate system launched America into a new era. The Federal Aid Highway and Highway Revenue Acts of 1956 – which President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed on June 29, 1956 – authorized a 13-year construction period beginning July 1, 1956, to be financed mostly on a pay-as-you-go basis.

User taxes – both new and increased – were anticipated to bring in $14.8 billion [the equivalent of $102 billion in 2005] over those 13 years covered by the highway act. They would count toward $38.5 billion [the equivalent of $265.6 billion in 2005] in new and existing road taxes over 16 years provided by the revenue act. (Because projects continue for years after the funds are first obligated, the revenue acts always have exceeded the highway acts in duration.)

The 1956 legislation required a 90:10 federal/state share for the costs of Interstate construction, and a 50:50 share for primary, secondary, and urban projects. These revolutionary formulas took the place of the existing short-term federal aid to states on a 50:50 basis.

A recession later in the 1950s prompted another act, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1958, which boosted Interstate appropriations from $2 billion annually to $2.2 billion in 1959 and $2.5 billion in 1960.

Only one hour after Eisenhower signed the 1956 acts, a Certificate of Apportionment for the first year’s authorization of $1.125 billion [equivalent of $7.76 billion in 2005] was signed by the secretary of commerce. Weeks later, on Aug. 1, 1956, to further accelerate the program, he made an additional apportionment of $2.55 billion [equivalent of $17.6 billion in 2005] for FY 1958.

More federal-aid highway funds were to be made available to the states in the first four years of the new program than in the previous four decades of federal aid combined, the Bureau of Public Roads said the next year. For the first time, long-range planning was being applied to the nation’s highway needs.

Interstate construction was welcomed at first, and these salad days of the Interstate saw wonderful new dual-lane, high-speed

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OUTDOOR ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA IMAGE

A NEW ERA

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Building the System

highways constructed in virtually every state of the union, connecting isolated rural areas, opening up congested cities, and shaping postwar America.

The program was so massive that new construction equipment like slipform pavers, grade trimmers, and portable asphalt plants were developed for the remarkable volume of construction. Then, as the counterculture generation of the late 1960s gained political clout in the 1970s, completion of the system slowed as costs rose and opposition gathered.

“No river or ravine, no gorge or gully, no urban or suburban land would stand in the way of the onrushing auto age,” said Jane Holtz Kay in her unflattering tome Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back (1997). “With Boston’s Route 128 underway as the nation’s first loop road, other cities followed to plunge 5,000 miles of freeways through town and countryside. Before this act, less than 500 miles of urban freeways had been built. After it, no city would be untouched. Urban America would empty out on the new arteries,“ Holtz Kay wrote.

States completed under the provisions of the new Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.”

Finally, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was opened on Oct. 1, 1940.

Because the turnpike was the first genuine limited access, Interstatetype highway in the United States, it is reputed to be the “first Interstate.” This has even more credence upon further examination because, as with Kansas, construction on some of the highways incorporated into the Interstate system began before 1956.

Nonetheless, Missouri tends to get first nod.

Building the System The program accelerated in the 1960s, to the point that the value of contracts awarded increased nearly twofold, from $3.8 billion in 1959 [equivalent of $27.4 billion in 2005], to $4.4 billion in 1963, to $5.5 billion in 1967, and $6.6 billion in 1969 [equivalent of $35.5 billion in 2000]. And while those sums – even when adjusted for inflation – are below today’s allocations [$36.03 billion in obligation authority for the federal-aid highway program in FY

KANSAS DOT PHOTO

Who Was First?

After the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signed on June 29, 1956, work on the system began after five short weeks.

Popularly, Missouri was the first state to begin work, but that is disputed by Kansas and Pennsylvania, which measure the start of the system using other criteria.

“On Aug. 2, 1956, Missouri became the first state to award a contract with the new Interstate construction funding,” said Richard Weingroff, information liaison specialist, Office of Infrastructure, Federal Highway Administration, and FHWA’s unofficial historian.

“The Missouri State Highway Commission worked on three contracts that day, but the first signed contract was for work on U.S. Route 66 – now I-44 – in Laclede County. As soon as that contract was signed, S.W. O’Brien, district engineer for the Bureau of Public Roads, called his headquarters in Washington, D.C., and confirmed that the contract was the first in the nation.”

Also on Aug. 2, Missouri awarded a contract for work on U.S. 40/I-70 in St. Charles County just west of St. Louis, and on Aug. 13, this project became the first to be awarded and to start construction after the act.

“But Kansas also has a claim,” Weingroff said. “On Aug. 31, the Kansas State Highway Commission awarded a contract for concrete paving of a two-lane section of U.S. 40 [I-70] a few miles west of Topeka. The construction was under way before the enactment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, but paving under the new contract began on Sept. 26. Because this was the first paving to be initiated after the 1956 act, First District State Highway Commissioner Ivan Wassberg wrote ‘9-26-56’ in the fresh cement to mark the historic day.”

Then, on Nov. 14, Kansas Gov. Fred Hall participated in a ribboncutting ceremony to open the newly paved road, and a sign was posted, identifying this section of I-70 as the “first project in the United

Opposite: Buy two cars – not just one – for your new suburban home, urged this Ford billboard from 1956, the year the Interstate highway program began. Above: A photo commemorates the completion of Kansas' newly paved U.S. 40 [I-70], the "first project in the United States completed" under the Federal-Aid Highway Act.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Building the System

ASPHALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

URBAN LEGEND UNTRUE: The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways does NOT require that one mile in every five must be straight, ostensibly so these straight sections could be used as airstrips in times of war.

–Thanks to Richard F. Weingroff, Federal Highway Administration completed in 1973. In the meantime, 2006 beginning Oct. 1, 2005], the funds Tennessee’s state-long Interstate, the 451were “all highway construction,” that is, mile I-40, was started in 1958 and finwith spending unencumbered by environished in 1974. In nearby West Virginia, Imental, safety, and labor considerations 64 – one of seven Interstate routes in the that are obligatory today.

Mountain State – was begun in 1957 and As construction ramped up in the completed in 1988.

1960s, fresh pavements planned years in As early as 1970, Pennsylvania advance were cast from coast to coast, opened its longest east-west highway, Icrossing wheat fields, traversing forests, ply80, complementing the Pennsylvania ing through prairies, bridging estuaries and Turnpike (I-76), considered the first limitedrivers, and carving through cities. access highway in the nation. Oregon worked The constricted two-lane blacktops were rapidly, completing the 308-mile, north-south Idisplaced by gleaming concrete dual-lane high5 in 1966. And on the other side of the continent, ways. Steel and concrete bridges superseded narRhode Island’s 45-mile I-95 was completed in 1972. row, flaking truss bridges. New construction techniques and materials became standard. And government agencies and contractors now had Interstate Spurs Contractors, established, reliable, predictable budgets on Inventors which to plan for the future.

“The activity and enthusiasm surroundAlong the way, small contractors grew ing the Interstate program in the early Asphalt and concrete vied to be the preferred large, and the Interstate program also spurred 1960s seem to have a golden glow about paving medium for the new Interstate system. new products to meet the new methods of them,” wrote the American Association of high-volume highway construction.

State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in its definitive In the 1930s Thomas Palazzi formed Frank Palazzi and Sons history, “The States and the Interstates” (1991).

Construction Company with other members of his family. The compaAnd that was reflected in the variety of projects across the nation, ny was an early leader in Interstate highway construction, beginning in city and country. By mid-1957, portions of the Congress Street with work on New Hampshire’s F.E. Everett Turnpike, and constructExpressway and the Edens Expressway were open to traffic in ing much of I-89, I-93, and I-91 in the Northeast. Palazzi and his firm Chicago. In the late 1950s, California began construction of I-5, rose to national prominence. which travels from one end of the state to another. Its final segment Another such beneficiary of the program was Bob Thompson, was completed in 1982. who in 1959 risked $3,500 to found Thompson-McCully Co., a As described in “America’s Top Transportation Projects & Public Michigan asphalt paving company. The firm grew and benefited from Officials of the 20th Century,” a retrospective by the American Road the burgeoning Interstate system and the urban growth so that he & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), the first full-depth, was able to sell the firm in 1999 for $461 million. He then made hot-mix asphalt (HMA) Interstate pavement in the country was placed world headlines by sharing $128 million of the proceeds with his in 1964 near Iowa City, Iowa. The Interstate also boasts the world’s employees, and began another career as a philanthropist by setting first welded aluminum girder-type highway bridge. aside another $100 million to establish the Thompson-McCully The Interstates also entered our lexicon. When political pundits Foundation for charitable giving, which has funded over 1,100 engirefer to “inside the Beltway” types, they’re talking about lobbyists and neering and general scholarships and other educational projects. politicians in central Washington and Virginia and Maryland suburbs, Yet another was H.B. “Pat” Zachry’s small company, founded in who reside within the 64-mile Capital Beltway, the circumferential I- Laredo, Texas, in 1924. San Antonio-based H.B. Zachry Co. grew into 495, also completed in 1964. one of the nation’s largest construction firms, undertaking some of In Wyoming, the state set a record when, in 1970, a 77-mile the largest Interstate transportation projects in Texas. stretch of I-80 was placed in service. Begun in 1966, it was the In Iowa, a contractor became a manufacturer in response to the longest single section of Interstate highway opened in one segment. Interstate system. Harold Godbersen started his own construction Construction on Mississippi’s I-55, the longest in the state, was firm in Ida Grove, Iowa, in 1938. In the early 1960s, Godbersen

54

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

ASPHALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

Building the System

Screened extensions permitted full-width Interstate highway asphalt paving in the 1970s.

developed a double oscillating concrete bridge deck screed finisher and, by the early 1960s, those machines were built by his construction firm and rented to Iowa contractors for concrete bridge deck finishing.

In 1965, he and his son Gary Godbersen founded GOMACO Corporation. Soon after, in 1967, GOMACO developed a cone drum or cylinder finisher for wider bridge decks. Other innovative products followed, including a fine grade trimmer, a curb and gutter trimmer/slipformer, and a three-track concrete slipform paver.

Similarly, Murray Rowe’s Bid-Well Corporation, Canton, S.D., marketed a new kind of bridge deck concrete finishing machine that revolutionized concrete bridge deck construction in the Interstate era. Bid-Well was founded in 1962 when Rowe worked with another South Dakotan, bridge foreman Tex Bidwell, who had invented a new-design bridge deck finisher that rode on pipe rails on the outside falsework, but finished (smoothed) a bridge deck to meet state specs.

Contractors who slipformed long stretches of pavements also needed to prepare the grade beneath quickly, accurately, and in high-volume. So during the runup of the system in the early 1960s, William “Bill” Swisher and his CMI Corp., Oklahoma City, developed the Autograde machine, which would automatically cut final grade for Interstate highway projects, increasing productivity of grading contractors by as much as 500 percent. Success with the Autograde led to other innovations in paving technology, such as the automation of the complete concrete slipform paving process, from grading and placement to surface texturing and curing.

Interstates and the Cities Interstates first were welcomed, then shunned, by the cities.

The challenge of building highways in the cities versus the country was succinctly put by New York City highway builder Robert Moses, who at the National Highway Users Conference in May 1964 said, “You can draw any kind of picture you like on a clean slate and indulge your every whim in the wilderness in laying out a New Delhi, Canberra, or Brasilia, but when you operate in an overbuilt metropolis, you have to hack your way with a meat ax.”

Integration of Interstate highways with cities was more complicated than with the countryside, but unlike the urban legend that says Interstates were never intended to enter cities, it always was part of the plan. The wartime study, ”Interregional Highways” (1943), which

55

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Building the System

CAPITALS CONNECTED: All but five state capitals are directly served by the Interstate system.

Those not directly served are Juneau, Alaska; Dover, Del.; Jefferson City, Mo.; Carson City, Nev.; and Pierre, S.D.

Top: Slipform pavers were developed to speed placement of portland cement concrete Interstates. Bottom: An inspection party visits an urban freeway site in California, c. 1960. outlined in detail a 39,147-mile Interstate-type system with a 20year life expectancy, included a 16-page section on “Principles of Route Selection in Cities,” and followed it with a four-page section on “Illustrations of Principles of Route Selection.”

This document, which shaped the Interstate system, described how city circumferentials – and in-city expressways – should be engineered. “To serve ... traffic bound to or from points other than the center of the city, there is need of routes which avoid the business center,” the study said. “Such routes should generally follow

“Interregional Highways” also anticipated today’s post-Interstate, intermodal era when it urged that the future Interstate highways be deliberately linked with other transportation modes.

“Railway terminals, both passenger and freight, wharves and docks and airports, generate large volumes of street and highway traffic,” the report said. “Location of the interregional routes at cities – both the city-penetrating main routes and the circumferential or distribution routes – should be so placed as to give convenient express service to these various major traffic-generating foci within and in the environs of the city ... especially, it is important that the location of interregional routes be so chosen as to permit and encourage a desirable coordination of highway transportation with rail, water, and air transportation.”

To make Interstates more palatable to the cities, “Interregional Highways” maintained: • Where elevation or depression was necessary to avoid intersections, “depression of the highway, if financially feasible, generally shall be preferred to elevation.” Where the highway must be elevated, it shall be “by means of a structure of adequate and pleasing design.”

• Service streets were to be provided, designed as one-way streets not less than 24 feet wide, at each side of the Interregional System [later, Interstate system] for the service of property.

• Design speed “shall be as high as practicable, consistent with the topography, proximity of urban improvements, and expected traffic volume.” With those limits, a design speed higher than 50 miles per hour “will usually be impracticable.”

• Sections that are expected to carry 20,000 vehicles or more a day should be designed for three lanes in each direction, each

56

TEREX ROADBUILDING/CMI PHOTOS

circumferential courses around the city, passing either through adjacent suburban areas or through the outer and less congested sections of the city proper. Generally, such routes can be so located as to serve both as arteries for the conveyance of through traffic around the city between various approach highways, and as distribution routes for the movement of traffic with local origins and destinations to and from the various quarters of the city.”

But circumferential or bypass routes would not be enough to serve the metro areas, “Interregional Highways” warned. “[T]he common impression that provision of [circumferential, bypass] routes would constitute invariably a complete, or even a substantially adequate solution of the highway problem at cities is not well-founded.

[O]n main highways at the approaches to any city, especially the larger ones, a very large part of the traffic originates in or is destined to the city itself. It cannot be bypassed.” The solution would be Interstate highways in cities, the report said.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Building the System

lane 12 feet wide. Opposing traffic should be separated by a raised median strip at least 4 feet wide.

• Rights-of-way should be acquired in their entirety “by outright purchase or condemnation” to accommodate “the construction of pavements, median strips, areas for deceleration, acceleration, and maneuvering, standing areas, side slopes, ramps, retaining walls, barrier strips, and service streets, or such of these facilities as may be required at any point.”

• Wherever feasible, the design “shall conserve desirable and irreplaceable landscape features, avoid needless damage to desirable trees and other growth and to lake and stream shores.” Areas disturbed by construction “shall be appropriately recovered with suitable vegetative growth, and the additional landscaping shall be done where deemed necessary.”

• All traffic control signs would be prohibited.

System Slows in the ‘70s Originally a 13-year program with 1969 as the year of final appropriations for the Interstate system, the system by 1970 was nowhere near completion. In late 1972, of 42,500 miles of designated Interstate system at that time, only 33,736 had been completed.

The program was continued via surface transportation legislation of 1970, 1973, and 1976. During the ‘70s, the original legislation for two federal programs of today – the 3R program of highway resurfacing, rehabilitation, and restoration, and the federal bridge repair and replacement program – was brought center stage.

In 1975, Arkansas became the first state to complete its original allocation of 542 miles of Interstates. Today, while Arkansas’ 655 miles of Interstate make up only 4 percent of the state’s highways, it carries about 31 percent of all traffic.

Nonetheless, after 1971, following 15 years of expansion, the Interstate program was hobbled by persistent inflation and troublesome energy and material shortages like the Arab oil embargo of 1973, which caused gas shortages nationwide and shook national confidence.

Equally troublesome were executive branch “impoundments” of federal highway funds, which were fought by Congress.

It culminated in dropping gas tax receipts into the Highway Trust Fund, the 55 mph National Speed Limit (NSL) to reduce fuel consumption, and a de-emphasis on highway construction, as it was viewed as encouraging wasteful fuel use.

“By the early 1970s, unquestioned support for large-scale highway construction had dissipated ... [s]tate highway engineers could count on neither broad public support for new projects nor the finances necessary to complete many projects,” said AASHTO in The States and the Interstates.

Symbolic of this reversal in fortune was Helen Leavitt’s 1970 attack on the industry, Superhighway-Superhoax. In her world-view, the industry is portrayed as an evil cabal that was forcing unneeded and undesired highways down America’s throat, destroying city and countryside alike while ripping off taxpayers. “From sea to shining sea we are strangling in a concrete straitjacket that pollutes the environment and makes driving a nightmare,” Leavitt wrote.

Industrial historian Mark H. Rose put the genesis of opposition to the Interstate system in the mid-1960s, when ramped-up construction brought it close to home for many citizens, and while the civil rights and antiwar movements encouraged citizens to challenge the government.

“Perhaps, opposition to construction of the Interstate system was essentially an extension of opposition to perceived patterns of injustice at home and overseas,” Rose wrote in Interstate: Express Highway Politics, 1939-1989. “Growing opposition among central city residents to urban renewal might have played a part in galvanizing opposition against another intrusion into their neighborhoods. But much of the opposition to the Interstate system arose from tangible encounters with state and federal engineers and their plans for new roads.”

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Building the System

TAKE A BREAK: No one knows how many rest areas are situated along the Interstate system. However, a count in 1972 reported 1,214 rest areas in existence. The number still operational today is not expected to differ dramatically from the 1972 figure.

As early as 1965, for example, opposition rose to the Vieux Carre Expressway, a 40-foot-high, 108-foot-wide elevated Interstate highway in front of Jackson Square in New Orleans. It was never built. At about the same time, opposition arose to the Crosstown Expressway in downtown Philadelphia; it was never built. Chicago’s Crosstown Expressway, linking the Edens Expressway on the north of the Chicago Loop with the Eisenhower Expressway to the west, and Stevenson Expressway and Midway Airport to the south, was cancelled and funds shifted to mass transit.

Typical of how that rage continues are the writings of Kay. “The road is a potent invader as well as a lethal corridor,” she wrote in Asphalt Nation, lending a living malevolency to the road. “It decreases environmental diversity. Already damaged lakes and ponds die; living creatures and plants weaken and diminish; aquifers for drinking water are destroyed.” This is patently untrue, as we will see in a later article, but the public’s anger at roadways was becoming all too real.

‘Impoundments’ Trouble Construction Among the battles fought to keep the Interstate under construction in the ‘70s – through the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations – was against the unilateral “impoundment,” or nonrelease, of highway funds by the executive branch of government.

Impoundment was a polite term for what was simply a moneygrab by the U.S. Treasury of highway-user funds, done to cover deficit spending and control inflation, a major problem of the time.

Those three consecutive administrations said that increased spending on highways would inflate labor wages and raise raw material prices. Increased highway construction, it was alleged, also encouraged motorists to drive more, wasting scarce gasoline during the twin fuel crises of the 1970s, thus raising the price of gasoline.

It was better, the presidents reasoned, to withhold highway funds, reduce the federal deficit, and quell inflation at the same time.

In 1972, in a closely watched case, Missouri v. Volpe, a U.S. District Court judge affirmed Missouri’s contention that impoundment of highway funds caused “great and incalculable injury to Missouri because of continuing inflation of highway costs and interruption of efficient obligation of its highway money.”

Then, in April 1973, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that federalaid funds authorized to be apportioned by Congress “are not to be withheld from obligation for purposes totally unrelated to the highway program,” upholding the Missouri ruling. Impoundment in this flagrant fashion came to an end with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, signed by Nixon that year.

But the battle continued. The oil crisis gave new justification for impoundment of highway funds, and President Gerald Ford’s Fiscal Year 1975 budget continued impoundment on a massive scale. By

May 1974, the total highway funds impounded were about $8 billion, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.

Year in and out, administrations would continue to support spending levels below authorization ceilings. It would not be until the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21, 1998) that full funding would be attained.

‘80s Look to Post-Interstate Era The Interstate construction era began winding down in the 1980s, and by 1986 some 97 percent of the original system had been completed.

Only a few sections remained to be completed, such as the Century Freeway (I-105) in Los Angeles, and the “Big Dig” Central Artery/Tunnel project, which is placing I-93 below grade in the very heart of Boston and extending I-90 through the Ted Williams Tunnel to Logan International Airport. The Big Dig is near completion in 2006 at enormous expense.

In 1985, the 1.5-mile, eight-lane Fort McHenry Tunnel carrying I-95 under Baltimore Harbor was opened. In 1990, a tunnel through downtown Phoenix was the final section of I-10 to be completed nationally. And following years of controversy, I-35 in Duluth, Minn., was completed in 1992, utilizing two spectacular tunnels along Lake Superior which have helped rejuvenate the city’s lakeshore.

The ribbon-cutting for the last section of I-80 in Salt Lake City on Aug. 22, 1986, drew few VIPs, said Tom Lewis in his awardwinning book on Interstate construction history, Divided Highways (1997). “The five miles signified the completion of the first transcontinental Interstate highway [the Lincoln Highway], 30 years and 55 days after Dwight Eisenhower had signed the bill that had made it possible,” Lewis wrote. “Many compared it with another great feat in the history of transportation that had taken place 117 years earlier about 75 miles from Interstate 80, the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory, Utah, to complete the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. Curiously, though, few of any prominence wanted to celebrate this landmark of federal and state cooperation.”

Lewis said the reason why VIPs skipped the ribbon-cutting was that attendance would not be “politically expedient” in a time in which expressway building was no longer fashionable.

Instead, the fact of the matter is that the VIPs who were completing the Interstate system were not celebrating the past, but were already looking ahead, toward the post-Interstate era, grappling with the challenge of maintaining a federal role in national highways when many maintained that the federal role should end with the completion of the system.

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Guest Editorial

Early Interstate Construction Endured Political, Financial and Environmental Challenges

By Bob Bushmeyer

As America emerged from the Industrial Age and entered the Space Age, its highway system was rapidly becoming the most sophisticated national highway system ever constructed, and a key economic driver. For the last 50 years, America’s highway system has been central to the most vibrant economy in the world – but its infancy was rife with political struggles and financial difficulties.

In its July 1960 issue, Reader’s Digest published “Our Great Big Highway Bungle,” which illustrated numerous organizational failings within the Interstate and federal highway program. Though the abuses identified in the article were minor within the context of the much larger, efficiently run program, the Bureau of Public Roads strengthened internal procedures, like unannounced sampling of materials nearly every month and the creation of an office of audits and investigations, headed by a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A subsequent investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Works confirmed that, overall, the program was well-run.

Financial challenges dogged the early highway system.

An initial cost estimate of the proposed 40,000-mile network was $27 billion, of which the federal government would pay $25 billion. Over the next several years, the size of the proposed system grew to 42,800 miles, driving up estimated costs as well. Increasing the federal gas tax to four cents per gallon was the first of many efforts intended to support the project’s increasing costs.

By the 1960s, concerns about the environmental impacts of Interstate construction in rural as well as urban areas began to emerge, prompting the Bureau of Public Roads to modify policies on fish and wildlife areas. Congress passed several bills as well, including the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, requiring formal environmental assessment of all federal-aid highway projects.

During this tumultuous period, the Bureau of Public Roads was reorganized and included in the new Federal Highway Administration, itself a part of a bigger organization

– the new U.S. Department of Transportation. The highway system continued to grow, and a wave of consumer advocacy contributed to a growing priority placed on highway safety.

Improved road design, like the concept of a forgiving roadside, the shift of traffic from conventional roads to the Interstate system, and other safety initiatives helped to save innumerable lives. The efforts have been an unqualified success. Through the safety efforts pioneered a generation before, highways are safer now than ever. The highway fatality rate fell to 1.4 per 100 million vehicle miles in 2004 compared to 3.3 per 100 million vehicle miles in 1980.

Additional study, bringing to bear some of the best scientific minds, has contributed to better highway construction as well. After the collapse of the Silver Bridge between Point Pleasant, W.Va., and Gallipolis, Ohio, on Dec. 15, 1967, FHWA’s National Bridge Inspection Standards were created to ensure that bridges are inspected regularly and that repairs are made before collapses occur.

Roadbuilding techniques developed in the United States have proven popular around the world. The role of the United States in building the Inter-American Highway – a highway connecting North, Central, and South America – as well as repairing roads damaged in war-torn nations, like the Phillippine Islands in 1946, have helped make America’s highway system a template for motorists around the world.

Today, the Interstate system is essentially complete, though it will surely continue to grow as America’s transportation needs do. Widespread efforts are being directed toward reducing traffic congestion in urban areas throughout the nation, safeguarding motorists and road crews alike in highway work zones, and improving road-surface durability, business planning, and innovative finance to ensure the long-term viability of one of the world’s most impressive engineering feats.

Bob Bushmeyer is a long-time observer of the highway construction and maintenance industry.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Post-Interstate System

TODAY’S

POST-INTERSTATE ERA

Reconstruction is a hallmark of the post-Interstate era. Here, I-70 west of Salina, Kan., is completely rebuilt and widened, one direction at a time.

By Tom Kuennen The current roadway system balances national priorities with state and local control

I

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KANSAS DOT PHOTO

n 2005, even as the last segment of the Interstate system approached completion – Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel (I-93, I-90) project – the nation finds itself well into the post-Interstate era.

In the 1980s – as the end of the era of Interstate construction drew near – political wrangling over the disposition of federal fuel taxes, the Interstate’s environmental impact, mass transit’s share of the federal fuel taxes, and a desire of states to have more control over how surface transportation funds were spent threatened to tear the federal program apart and “devolve” all transportation funding to the states.

Instead, these surface transportation proponents came together to shape the post-Interstate era, characterized by significantly higher funding levels for both highways and mass transit, more state and local control over

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Post-Interstate System

where and how dollars are spent, more balance with environmental needs, and a renewed federal program.

Post-Interstate Era Arrives The post-Interstate era arrived with the 1990s. In it, federal surface transportation policy would embrace transit even more than, in previous years, encourage high-speed rail, and move closer to highway system preservation and asset management. No longer would the main thrust of federal transportation policy drive construction of new expressways through cornfields or neighborhoods.

At the same time, under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21, 1998), authorizations for federal funding for our nation’s highways and bridges increased 69 percent over six years, and 44 percent over six years through 2003, respectively.

Today’s Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users (SAFETEA-LU) – passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Bush on Aug. 10, 2005 – continues this largesse with a 38 percent increase above the guaranteed funding levels of TEA-21 over six years.

Since ISTEA, for the first time on a federal basis, highway user fee-generated funds made available through the federal program began to approach demonstrated needs.

Through ISTEA’s (and its successors’) concept of flexible funding, state departments of transportation received enormous freedom in how federal transportation dollars could be spent.

ISTEA mandated Congress to establish a National Highway System (NHS), made up of the Interstate system and other highways of national significance, all of which benefit from federal funding. A secondary system of state and local roads also is identified.

And in this post-Interstate era, beginning with ISTEA in 1991, federal funds now can be spent for development of privately-owned highways such as toll roads. This enables expressways in suburban and rural areas to be built faster than could be programmed by the state DOTs themselves. Both the motoring public and the construction industry benefit.

Early ‘80s: Sounding the Alarm on Condition Understanding that the days of massive system-building are over, the post-Interstate era also permits spending of substantial federal funds on system maintenance and preservation, as opposed to new construction on new rights-of-way. The alarm on system condition was sounded in the early 1980s, and its lesson was not lost on those who crafted post-Interstate era funding legislation.

National attention on system condition was brought to bear in the 1983 publication of Dr. Pat Choate’s America in Ruins: The Deteriorating Infrastructure, and a companion piece, Bad Roads: The Hidden Costs of Neglect (the latter published by the National Asphalt Pavement Association). Choate, who held policy positions in the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Tennessee and

Oklahoma governments, focused attention on the nation’s declining transportation infrastructure for all modes.

“The effect of deteriorating roads on the economic vitality of the nation is clear,” Choate wrote. “When the decay of the nation’s airports, railroads, inland waterways, ports and mass transit systems also is considered, it becomes obvious that the hidden costs of allowing America’s transportation systems to deteriorate are already much too high.”

These widely distributed books elicited news media attention, galvanized the highway community, and started the highway establishment thinking about what the post-Interstate era should look like. The books documented the much higher economic and social costs of an inadequate road system, compared to the costs of improvement. Today, Choate directs a Washington-based policy institute, the Manufacturing Policy Project, and teaches at George Washington University.

Yet another contemporaneous publication turned conventional wisdom on its ear. For years it was assumed that the bulk of America’s morning and evening commutes were from the edges of the core city and suburbs to the downtown, or central business district, and back again. This assumption drove urban planning and transportation expenditures for decades.

But a groundbreaking report challenged this assumption. In Commuting in America, published in 1987 by the Eno Foundation for Transportation, Alan E. Pisarski established that the major commute had shifted from suburb-to-city to suburb-to-suburb. Pisarski described an explosion in new jobs and workers, the growth of suburban jobs having far outstripped those in the central city, and an enormous leap in the number of private vehicles used in commutes, which was undermining mass transit use. Pisarski’s new paradigm had great impact on post-Interstate transportation legislation and led to new attitudes in transportation planning.

Other voices reinforced this sea change in transportation policy.

“Since World War II, much of the federal effort in transportation has been directed toward building a comprehensive infrastructure, from Interstate highways to a network of modern airports,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sam Skinner in Transportation Builder magazine in early 1989. “As we enter the 21st century, we must redirect our efforts toward maintaining that [transportation] infrastructure, maximizing its capacity, and providing new capacity to meet further demand.”

What Did America Want?

Inside the Beltway there was no shortage of ideas on how the post-Interstate era should be configured. With that in mind, the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and its partners looked outside the Beltway for input from America as to how the process should change. Transportation 2020 was the result.

Enter Francis B. Francois, Jr., executive director of AASHTO from 1980-1999. In an era when road construction and the automobile

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

GRADALL, INC. PHOTO

Post-Interstate System

were under attack, Frank Francois made sure that our soft-wheel transportation infrastructure remained the centerpiece of our national transportation policy.

Francois built bridges and coalitions among national agencies and associations to make sure a common voice was heard by Congress “inside the Beltway.” And as head of AASHTO during this transitional period and the Transportation 2020 research, he was critical to the smooth passage of our national transportation policy from an Interstate-era policy keyed to building Interstates, to a post-Interstate policy responsive to state and local desires.

Later, he worked tirelessly to promote intermodal linkages in our system, to ensure that transit got its fair share of the pie for its future livelihood, and to help lay the foundation for the intelligent highway infrastructure of the future.

Transportation 2020 actively pursued a national consensus on the nation’s transportation needs through the year 2020, and built a plan to meet those needs. With completion of construction on the Interstate system pending, transportation leaders in AASHTO and other organizations agreed upon the need to examine the mission of the nation’s highway system.

Yet another factor leading to Transportation 2020 was the disastrous pursuit of the 1986 federal program reauthorization. The existing program had expired Sept.

30, 1986, without reauthorizing legislation in place, and then Congress adjourned at the

Given the incredible traffic volumes on our Interstate system, night work has become a fact of life in the post-Interstate era. Here, jersey barriers are placed ahead of night work in Pennsylvania. then, national transportation leaders realized they needed, more than ever, to present a consensus-driven transportation policy as the nation transitioned to a postInterstate era.

Transportation 2020 was organized by AASHTO into a four-phase process. In the first phase, AASHTO set the stage by identifying needs and issues. The second phase sought input from member state transportation departments, the Federal

sored 65 forums nationwide that involved some 9,000 people for Phase III. The result was a comprehensive report on what Americans wanted called “Beyond Gridlock: The Future Of Mobility As The Public Sees It.” This effort was followed by Phase IV, a “futures” conference in June 1988, which brought all of these findings to the front.

“In every state, whether it is a growth state or a stable state, whether it is an agricultural state or an urban state, everyone

CHANGING HIGHWAYS: An exact count of the number of interchanges on the Interstate system is not available. However, a 1978 count found 14,231 interchanges. This number has likely increased somewhat over the intervening years. end of the year without passage, leaving the entire program in abeyance.

On return in January 1987, the new Congress passed the new bill, but it was vetoed by President Ronald Reagan as a means of asserting his continued authority in the wake of the Iran-Contra scandal. With the entire federal program in dire jeopardy, the veto was overridden by one vote. By

Highway Administration (FHWA), and other stakeholder associations and agencies. The result was a widely distributed report, “Keeping America Moving: The Bottom Line.”

Then, in a remarkable outreach effort, AASHTO – with the help of the Highway Users Federation, now the American Highway Users Alliance (AHUA) – spon-

63

who shows up has some sort of complaint about some current shortfall in some aspects of the transportation system,” said former FHWA associate administrator and Highway Users Federation president Les Lamm in November 1987.

Transportation 2020 determined that: • The new surface transportation program should include a renewed

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Post-Interstate System

ISTEA Becomes Post-Interstate Law

federal commitment to a national highway system, public transportation, and an increased emphasis on urban/suburban mobility and rural access.

• Bridge rehabilitation and replacement is a high priority and should be an eligible expenditure from highway programs.

• Funds for federal-aid highway programs should be allocated and apportioned to states. Within states, federal funds for state and local programs should be further distributed by states and appropriate local officials in cooperation with each other. Federal funds for public transit to support existing systems, services, and programs should continue to be provided directly to designated recipients. Federal transit funds for

64

BENTLEY SYSTEMS, INC. IMAGE

Top: Volume-induced congestion is the bane of urban expressways.

Here, morning rush-hour traffic builds on I-5 in Orange County, Calif.

Above: The use of computer simulation for National Highway System planning is a defining characteristic of the post-Interstate era. Here, the South Carolina DOT used a program called MicroStation V8 to develop a complex, three-dimensional model of its entire North Myrtle Beach Connector project. The agency produced visualizations in various media for display at public meetings, and virtual tours of the model were valuable in communicating construction decisions regarding sound walls, placement of sign bridges, and landscaping.

The first surface transportation legislation of the postInterstate era was quietly developed and rapidly passed by the U.S. Senate. ISTEA, signed into law in December 1991, provided a radically different structure for distributing surface transportation funds, but neutralized any opposition by providing drastically increased levels of highway funding.

ISTEA contained greatly increased funding, reduction of the unobligated balance of the Highway Trust Fund, and higher motor fuel taxes to support the expanded program. The act made an astonishing $151 billion available to state DOTs from fiscal years 1991 through 1997, an average $25.2 billion yearly.

While ISTEA provided vast new amounts for surface transportation construction, other elements were less palatable to some legislators and their state DOTs, and to highway lobbyists.

For example, the new law gave states and local governments unprecedented flexibility in moving highway funds to transit.

Surface transportation funds could be “flexed” by states and metropolitan regional councils away from highways and roads, where the funds originated, and spent on other transportation projects.

By allocating gas tax money through metropolitan areas to spend on roads or on transit as the council chooses, ISTEA sidestepped state DOTs, which miffed some agencies. Also, donor states – those states that send more money to the federal program than they get back – demanded a higher rate of return.

ISTEA also permitted gas tax money to be spent on a wide range of non-roadbuilding-related end uses, such as subsidies for mass transit and high-speed rail, and non-roadbuilding “transportation enhancements” such as tourist facilities, bicycle paths, scenic byways, and recreational trails, and even day care centers adjacent to mass transit stops.

“Flexibility is the common thread running through the highway program reauthorization legislative proposals that have been prepared by the [George H.W.] Bush administration and both the House and Senate,” said American Road & Transportation Builders (ARTBA) president Pete Ruane in early 1991, prior to ISTEA’s passage. “The problem is that too much flexibility could mean that the nation’s enormous highway and bridge capital needs will remain unmet well into the next century as highway user dollars are diverted to non-highway activities.”

Perhaps most vexing, due to the direct linkages between the Clean Air Act, ISTEA, and its successor, TEA-21, funding for road improvements could be blocked in metropolitan areas not meeting stringent air pollution guidelines as determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

But the higher spending levels made ISTEA all but impossible to resist, the bill was passed, and the industry benefited.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM KUENNEN

rural and small urban areas should continue to be provided to and through the states.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Post-Interstate System

OLDEST SEGMENT: The oldest Interstate segments actually predate the establishment of the Interstate system. An early example is a portion of the Grand Central Parkway in Queens, N.Y., which was opened to traffic in July 1936 and later was incorporated into the Interstate system as I-278.

ISTEA’s Employee Commute Options One of the most onerous, but largely forgotten, elements of ISTEA was its attempts to reduce traffic congestion through behavior modification on a national scale. The idea was that if commuters could be forced out of their vehicles, less concrete and asphalt would have to be placed with less environmental disruption.

Thus the Employee Commute Options feature of ISTEA required that states pass laws forcing employers of more than 100 in air pollution non-attainment areas to reduce singlevehicle commutes by 10 percent in phases.

By requiring the states to run the programs, the U.S. Congress effectively passed the buck to the states. And because the states forced private businesses to do the dirty work, they were insulated as well.

Employee Commute Options was passed by Congress within ISTEA with great enthusiasm as a solution to congestion and pollution woes, but as deadlines approached, the program was seen to be physically unworkable. It died quietly, abandoned and alone.

But behavior-modification, traffic demand management schemes such as congestion pricing still are thought in many circles to be the only long-term solution to traffic overload in an environmentally and economically “sustainable” transportation system. Behavior modification worked with tobacco abuse, say supporters, and it can be done with America’s addiction to petroleum as well.

National Highway System Incorporates Interstate One problematic element of ISTEA was its requirement that a National Highway System (NHS) be designated by Congress by Oct. 1, 1995, or billions of dollars of funding would be lost for the duration of the bill.

Timely designation was a must for the nation, but as typical “must-pass” transportation legislation, it didn’t. When the NHS bill failed to pass by Oct. 1, $5.2 billion in FY 1996 NHS and Interstate Maintenance highway funding was held in abeyance.

By late November, though, the bill was in conference, and the new law was passed shortly thereafter. The bill designated 161,000 miles of highways of national significance, including the Interstate system, and eliminated the unpopular 55 mph National Speed Limit (1973-95).

As the debate continued as to what should replace ISTEA, the first surface transportation legislation of the post-Interstate era, some wondered if there had to be a federal program at all.

In particular, donor states wanted more from the program.

These states wanted to limit, or eliminate, the federal program altogether. Known as “devolution,” the concept existed in at least two permutations. A moderate devolution of the federal road program to the states was introduced in the summer of 1996 and was known as STEP-21, for Streamlined Transportation Efficiency Program for the 21st Century. STEP21 attempted to solve the problems of donor/donee inequity while maintaining a moderate federal presence.

But near the end of the 104th Congress, the Transportation Empowerment Act of 1996 (TEA 1996) was introduced by Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, and Sen. Connie Mack,

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Post-Interstate System

R-Fla. After a two-year transition, the act would have lowered the federal gas tax dedicated to the trust fund from 14 cents to 2 cents, and allowed dozens of federal programs to expire while eliminating others. The remaining two cents would continue to fund a core federal program, including Interstate maintenance and federal lands, and more. Kasich and Mack reintroduced the bill as TEA II in 1997.

In March 1997, AASHTO’s Francois warned that unless proponents of competing reauthorization concepts could get together, there might be no reauthorization of federal surface transportation, period.

Among the successors to ISTEA were: • STEP-21, introduced in the Senate as S. 335.

• NEXTEA, from the Clinton administration, introduced in the Senate as S.468. This was the six-year, $175 billion, National Economic Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act of 1997.

While providing funds on a scale of ISTEA, NEXTEA contained several elements that were unpalatable to the industry.

Among other issues, NEXTEA’s environmental elements were problematic. At NEXTEA’s debut, President Clinton described NEXTEA as “one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation that will be considered by the Congress in the next two years.”

• ISTEA Works!, a proposal by Northeastern states – primarily urban states with intense transit interests and “donee” states – which would retain ISTEA and its distribution formulas, and • STARS 2000, for Surface Transportation Authorization and Regulatory Streamlining Act 2000, drafted by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho. STARS 2000 reflected the needs of low-population Western states. Their bill would call for full use of the Highway Trust Fund to allow annual highway spending of some $26 billion.

BESTEA: ‘Mother Of All Transportation Bills’

Pavement Preservation and Maintenance

Attractive highway rest areas – like this one on I-40 in eastern Tennessee – are a substantial expense for state DOTs in the postInterstate era.

In the post-Interstate era, a growing federal focus on preserving the existing system of state, local, and national pavements is underscoring today’s new emphasis on preventive pavement maintenance.

In the 1980s – as the nation entered the post-Interstate era – emphasis began shifting from construction of new pavements to maintenance of existing pavements. Much of this was fueled by ISTEA, which explicitly provided maintenance funds via its Interstate Maintenance Program and Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds, which generally could be used as a state saw fit.

The FHWA actually first became involved with funding for maintenance activities on the Interstate system as a result of the 1976 program reauthorization that established the 3R program to fund Interstate resurfacing, restoration, and rehabilitation. The FederalAid Highway Act of 1981 expanded the program by adding a fourth “R,” reconstruction.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM KUENNEN

Ultimately, the successful bill – the Building Efficient Surface Transportation and Equity Act, or BESTEA, ultimately TEA-21 – was crafted by then-House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa. Paraphrasing Saddam Hussein, Shuster called his effort the “mother of all transportation bills,” which, when coupled with a drawdown of existing excess balances in the Highway Trust Fund, could increase federal surface transportation spending alone from $26 billion in FY 1998 to as much as $33 billion in FY 2000.

Removal of highway spending from yearly budget-balancing was justified, he maintained, because funds for highway spending at the federal level are collected in advance from highway users at the gas pump, and do not increase the federal deficit in any way.

And on June 1998, President Clinton signed BESTEA’s successor, TEA-21, the largest federal investment ever in the nation’s transportation infrastructure. While retaining ISTEA’s essential features, it made some of ISTEA’s proclivities more acceptable to the industry, and authorized a six-year, $217 billion program for state and local highway and mass transit programs.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Post-Interstate System

ISTEA terminated the I-4R program, except for a small discretionary set-aside, and established a new Interstate maintenance (IM) program along with the NHS program, which includes the Interstate system. The IM funds may be used on the Interstate system for 3R work and for reconstruction of bridges, interchanges, and overcrossings along existing Interstate routes, but may not be used for the construction of new travel lanes other than high occupancy vehicle lanes or auxiliary lanes.

The 1998 TEA-21 expanded eligibility for funding under the IM program to the fourth R, reconstruction. As a result, the addition of new interchanges, new rest areas, and new noise walls became eligible for IM funding. However, IM funding of added lanes, except HOV and auxiliary lanes, was not allowed.

But now, an advancing philosophy of “asset management” – adapted from the corporate world – is providing new momentum and excitement for pavement preservation, and it’s being spearheaded at the federal level by the FHWA’s Office of Asset Management, created in February 1999. The concept of asset management makes sense when you consider the change in focus of the highway program from building new highways on new thoroughfares to maintenance of the existing infrastructure.

There is a perceived need by many transportation professionals for a comprehensive management approach to road systems, given their common background in aging infrastructure, always less-than-adequate budgets despite the magnitude of resources, constrained staff resources, while at the same time the public is increasing its expectations of what the transportation system can provide. Transportation asset management makes that easier.

SAFETEA-LU Continues Post-Interstate Era Last year’s SAFETEA-LU authorizes an investment of $286.4 billion over six years on highway and transit infrastructure projects. A total of $295 billion in contract authority and $286.4 billion in guaranteed spending over six years is provided for federal highway, transit, and safety programs.

The six-year bill reflects a 38 percent increase over the guaranteed funding levels of TEA-21. The five-year total from fiscal years 2005 through 2009 is $244.15 billion.

Contract authority is set at $295 billion, and an $8.6 billion rescission (or rollback) of old contract authority is not slated to take place until the end of fiscal year 2009, the final year of the bill.

The bill provides a total of $189.5 billion in obligation limitation for highways with another $3.7 billion for programs exempt from that limitation, such as emergency relief, a total of $193.2 billion – a record amount for highways. The bill also provides $45.3 billion for mass transit. The allocation for highway safety programs and motor carrier safety programs over five years amounts to $5.65 billion.

The obligation limitation or ceiling is the maximum amount that can be programmed for current and future projects in a given fiscal year, while contract authority is a form of budget authority that permits obligations to be made in advance of appropriations.

The investment level of the final conference report – in which the House and Senate versions of reauthorization were reconciled and resubmitted for vote – was $2.5 billion more than the House-passed TEA-21 reauthorization bill and $7.5 billion less than the Senate version.

The annual levels of guaranteed obligations under the conference report, which covers five fiscal years (2005-09), are $34.4 billion for 2005, $36 billion for 2006, $38.2 billion for 2007, $39.6 billion for 2008, and $41.2 billion for 2009.

“Progress takes time, but this bill represents strong progress and we’re very pleased with it,” said AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley. “With the certainty and funding this new law can provide, state transportation departments can finish out

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Post-Interstate System

ANOTHER OLDIE: Among other oldest Interstate segments, the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Irwin (southeast of Pittsburgh) and Carlisle (west of Harrisburg) was officially opened in October 1940 and is now designated as I-76 and I-70. Other freeways and toll roads were incorporated into the system rather than building new, competing Interstate routes. this construction season and plan with confidence for the next several years’ work.”

Innovative funding is advanced by the bill. “This bill also opens the door to the use of federal tax-exempt bonds to help finance some highway and bridge projects,” Ruane said. “And it includes provisions that unquestionably will increase safety in highway construction work zones and help get transportation projects completed sooner.”

That the financing of the federal system is at a tipping point also is addressed by SAFETEA-LU. “Perhaps most significantly, Congress has recognized the current revenue stream to the Highway Trust Fund is not sufficient to meet the federal government’s responsibilities in transportation,” Ruane said. “The bill mandates the creation of a bipartisan, ‘blue ribbon’ commission to identify the best ways to finance federal transportation investments post-2009.”

“Considering the budgetary constraints, House and Senate conferees used every available revenue source to increase funding,” said Steve Sandherr, president, Associated General Contractors of America. “Transportation needs remain great and, while this legislation moves us in the right direction, fully addressing those needs should remain a priority. This bill includes many solid policy changes that we recommended to Congress, changes that will help our members deliver projects quicker and safer.”

Special Interest Politics?

The bill also contained over 6,300 so-called “pork barrel” projects, with funds earmarked for specific projects within a U.S. representative’s districts. While these “demonstration” projects are condemned by taxpayer watch groups and disavowed by state DOTs because they circumvent the agencies’ programming processes, they still represent bridge and road projects that will be built which are funded within the context of the overall surface transportation bill.

Watchdog groups such as the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) formed a chorus of critics of the legislation. Alaska, the third-least populated state, got the fourth most in earmarks, $941 million, thanks largely to the work of its lone representative, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young, reported CCAGW. “That included $231 million for a bridge near Anchorage to be named ‘Don Young’s Way’ in honor of the Republican,” the group said.

“Meanwhile, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., nailed down $630 million, including $330 million for the Centennial Corridor Loop in Bakersfield, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.”

Reopeners and Rescissions When it became clear that the White House would not support the $300 billion level of funding, some legislators suggested that the future SAFETEA-LU contain “reopeners” that would permit the funding levels to be increased after a few years if additional funding sources could be located. That did not fly, but the bill does contain additional “contract authority” – the ability to authorize more spending – above the guaranteed level of $286.5 billion. AASHTO reports both the House and the Senate conferees support the idea of a higher level of contract authority, because it gives states increased flexibility in the use of funds (TEA21 contained $20 billion in contract authority over the guaranteed levels, $15 billion for highways and $5 billion for transit). But in its effort to appear to reduce government spending, the White House opposed additional contract authority.

Now Congress will have to grapple with the potential rescission of the $8.5 billion gap between total obligation ceiling limitations and total contract authority. Theoretically, on Sept. 30, 2009, the federal government will take back $8.5 billion in SAFETEA-LU funding. This rollback was required by the Bush administration and will balance the difference between the bill’s $286.4 billion in obligation ceilings, and its $295 billion in contract authority required to increase funding to donor states, thus making the bill more palatable to those states. Fortunately, Congress has four years to figure out how to get around the rescission.

Donor/Donee Issue Revisited “The conferees were sensitive to the needs of donor states as well as donee states,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wisc., chairman, House Subcommittee on Highways, Transit and Pipelines, on July 29, 2005.

“Donor states will see increases in their rate of return, reaching a 92 percent rate of return in 2008 and 2009. There is a minimum growth rate of 19 percent to protect other states.”

A revamped highway safety construction program has been included, Petri said. “Likewise, we have revised the current border program into a formula fund to meet increasing needs for states facing high infrastructure costs from increasing foreign trade and growing traffic,” Petri added. “Environmental streamlining, planning, and other administrative improvements seek to make project delivery more efficient without lessening protections.”

Thus SAFETEA-LU sets the stage for America’s surface transportation system in the 21st century. In the rest of Interstate 50, we’ll look at how the Interstate system was constructed from coast to coast in more detail, and we’ll see how the highway system of tomorrow already is with us here, today.

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Guest Editorial

Shifting the Focus of the Interstate Highway System to the Next 50 Years

By John Horsley

A half-century has passed since President Dwight David Eisenhower and the Congress set the nation on a course to connect America and ensure its prosperity through the construction of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

Much of the Interstate was built by the mid-1980s, and since the enactment of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, we have moved into what has been called the post-Interstate Era. Certainly, the highway and transit authorizations since that time have set dramatic new policy – giving states and municipalities greater spending flexibility; increasing public input in the planning process; linking transportation spending to air quality; and calling for an intermodal approach to transportation services.

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century made reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Interstate Highway System a priority, strengthened the Surface Transportation Program and the bridge rehabilitation program, provided for long-range planning, and enhanced flexible spending between highways and transit.

The most recent surface transportation reauthorization – the $286.4 billion Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) – maintains state spending flexibility, encourages innovative finance mechanisms, and emphasizes comprehensive safety planning.

As we look to the future of our transportation system over the next 50 years, I would suggest that we are entering the Neo-Interstate period, demanding a new vision as bold as the one that produced the Interstate legislation in 1956.

I am not alone in this perspective. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said early this year, “We’re in a new century now. The rules have changed, and it’s time to start thinking about the next 50 years, and how we’re going to build and maintain those new roads to keep the economy moving forward.”

In SAFETEA-LU, Congress and the administration took a first step toward that new vision – creating the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission.

State departments of transportation, through AASHTO, are preparing comprehensive recommendations to this panel, including options for the future of the Interstate system.

The challenges are clear. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation noted in its November 2005 report, it has been 13 years since the federal fuel tax was last adjusted.

Since 1993 it has lost 30 percent of its purchasing power.

Recent price spikes in steel, concrete, asphalt, and petroleum compound this problem. The president’s 2007 budget confirms that the spending authorized by SAFETEA-LU will exhaust Highway Account reserves and confront the Trust Fund with insolvency in just three years. Industry observers have concluded that this crisis will either force Congress to adjust fuel taxes come 2009, or funding for the federal aid highway and transit programs as we have known it will collapse.

Revenue is only a part of the challenge to be faced in the new era. Population growth, travel increases, and dramatic growth in domestic and international freight will place tremendous strains on system capacity. We must begin with the mission of connecting America to the world, and determine what they will mean in terms of technology, a rationale for new alignments, new capacity to relieve congestion, and economic and environmental sustainability.

States can provide valuable models – such as the TransTexas Corridor (TTC). As one of the fastest-growing states in the Union, Texas leaders understand that in order to compete in the North American Free Trade Agreement and the world, the safe and efficient movement of people and goods is necessary.

Largely following the path of Interstate 35, which runs northsouth through the state, Texas is planning a superhighway that will be anywhere from four to 18 lanes in width. The corridor will have separate lanes for car and truck traffic, as well as space for freight rail, high speed commuter rail, and utilities.

Texas is taking on this task through a unique public-private partnership; entering an agreement with a U.S.-Spanish consortium to operate the corridor through a 50-year concession that will toll, build, and improve the TTC for a return on its investment. The project breaks new ground in terms of intermodal efficiency, capacity, and innovative finance.

Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe said recently, “The current challenges facing the highway trust fund – and hence the highway program – will be very difficult to resolve and not unlike the challenges faced by the authors of the 1956 act. It will be up to policymakers to be as visionary as they were 50 years ago. A new vision is needed in what the highway program will stand for in the next 50 years and how to pay for it.”

John Horsley is executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

The

INTERSTATES in the

EAST

By Tom Kuennen Urbanized East is home to some of the nation’s largest and most crowded Interstates

The nation’s heavily urbanized Eastern Seaboard and adjoining states are home to some of America’s busiest and most crowded city expressways, but also to some of the loveliest rural highways. Here’s a look at the development of the Interstate system in 12 eastern states, compiled from American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) state DOT questionnaires distributed exclusively for this publication early in 2006.

CONNECTICUT: Parkways Preceded the Interstates

Due to many historical and commercial buildings in Connecticut’s urban areas, many of the roadway alignments had to be modified from their initial designs to avoid the demolition of these buildings.

The Connecticut DOT is proud of the “new” Baldwin Bridge, the replacement of an eight-lane, 2,522-foot-long segmental concrete structure on I-95 (1990-1993). To avoid problems inherent in delivering segments to site by barge and lifting them into position with barge-mounted cranes, the contractor proposed an innovative alternative – fabricating a specially designed steel launching truss capable of lifting the 150-ton segments from a truck at deck level, and moving them into position to build the decks in balanced cantilever fashion.

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CONNECTICUT DOT IMAGE

The Connecticut Department of Transportation was known as the Connecticut Highway Department in 1956, when the Interstate system was launched. Like other eastern states, its first section of Interstate was originally constructed as a tollway, the Connecticut Turnpike from Greenwich to Waterford (now I-95).

Other limited-access highways within Connecticut prior to 1956 were S.R. 15, Greenwich to Milford, the Merritt Parkway; S.R. 15, Milford to Union, the Wilbur Cross Parkway; and S.R. 796, Milford, the Milford Parkway. Connecticut’s first contract under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act was also its first urban project, No. 164-58, I-91 in the town of Windsor. This section was built with Interstate Urban funds and was originally designated as U.S. Route 5A, but when the entire section length was completed, the designation was changed to I-91, the first Interstate built in Connecticut with federal Interstate funds.

The first circumferential Interstate was I-291, designed to go around Hartford, but only one section was built, from the town of Windsor to the town of Manchester.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

Another noteworthy project was the upgrade of the I-84 expressway in the Towns of East Hartford and Manchester, with the I-84 eastbound/I-91 northbound “flyover” connector (1990), eliminating a surface street connection.

Today, the Connecticut DOT is improving traffic operations along I-95 in greater New Haven. Its I-95 New Haven Harbor

D.C.: Rock Creek Parkway Was Early Limited-Access Route The first section of Interstate in the District of Columbia was I295, but the first contracts undertaken by the District of Columbia Department of Highways were sections of I-395, the Eisenhower Freeway, and I-295, the Anacostia Parkway, reports the The District Department of Transportation. The Anacostia, the DDOT reports, was the first urban segment, although the district’s urban nature would put nearly all construction in that category.

However, they were preceded by the handsome limited-access highways Rock Creek Parkway and Whitehurst Freeway.

While mostly in Virginia and Maryland, the circumferential Interstate serving D.C. is the National Capital Beltway. Its last section opened to traffic Aug. 17, 1964.

The DDOC remembers John N. Robertson, director, of the District of Columbia Department of Highways (from 1952-1960); Douglas S. Brinkley, chief planning engineer, 1948-1962; and H.L. Aiken, director, District DOH from 1960-1968.

A notable section of I-395 is the “Center Leg Freeway,” a tunnel under the National Mall, which took 15 years to design and construct. Its construction preserved the vista from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

DELAWARE: Turnpike Was First Interstate in “First State”

Seen here is a rendering of the new I-95 Pearl Harbor Memorial "Q" Bridge in New Haven, Conn., part of the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program, for which Parsons Brinckerhoff is program manager.

Crossing Corridor Improvement Program is a multi-modal transportation project that features public transit enhancements and roadway improvements along 7.2 miles of I-95. The program includes a major signature structure for Connecticut, the new Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge.

And the DOT’s Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is currently being transformed from a construction management system to a system with a traveler information and traffic management emphasis.

The first section of Interstate completed in Delaware was I-95, reports the Delaware Department of Transportation. This 23-mile road that stretches from the Maryland state line to the Pennsylvania state line – with a connection to the Delaware Memorial Bridge linking Delaware with New Jersey – was begun by the then-named Delaware State Highway agency and first opened in 1963.

This toll road, then known as the Delaware Turnpike, runs eastward from Maryland’s Northeast Expressway to the Delaware Memorial Bridge Freeway, and trimmed a half hour off the travel time between these two byways.

I-95 was Delaware’s first Interstate contract and first limitedaccess highway. The urban I-95 runs through the western side of Wilmington into Pennsylvania, serving both local and Interstate traffic. Its first and only circumferential Interstate is I-495.

As a show of unity between Delaware and Maryland, and to demonstrate the cooperative effort placed into building the Interstate, the presiding governors of each state – and President John F. Kennedy himself – officially dedicated I-95 at the DelawareMaryland line on Nov. 14, 1963.

Major structures along the system are viaducts over the Brandywine River and the Christina River. Ongoing or future National Highway System projects in Delaware include S.R. 1, continuing I-95 work, U.S. 202, S.R. 113, and the Indian River Inlet Bridge.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA IMAGE

Interstates in the East

A rendering of the new I-95/I-495 Woodrow Wilson Bridge crossing of the Potomac River, Maryland-Virginia.

“President Kennedy dedicated the current toll plaza at Newark over 40 years ago, and without question the plaza has become antiquated in both design and in facilitating the high volume of traffic that transits it daily,” the Delaware DOT says. “Extensive studies have been conducted for the total revitalization and design of the entire plaza, adapting its capabilities for the expected and dramatic increase of traffic over the next several years.”

This includes the construction of designated E-ZPass Express Lanes (open-lane tolling), whereby subscribers of E-ZPass would bypass the plaza altogether, passing under sensor devices with the capability of registering customers’ tolls at highway speed. Other improvements include the reconfiguration of the State Route 1 and Interstate 95 interchange, as well as the construction of an additional lane along I95 between the S.R. 1/I-95 interchange and the S.R. 141/I-95 interchange.

MAINE: Urban Pressures Manifest in Pastoral Landscape Like Delaware and Connecticut before it, Maine’s first Interstate highway was the indispensable I-95 between the towns of Brunswick and Freeport, now designated as I-295. Back then, the Maine Department of Transportation was known as the Maine State Highway Commission, and the state’s first limited-access highway was the Maine Turnpike, between Kittery and Augusta.

Its first urban expressway under the program was a section of I-95 through the city of Bangor, and its first circumferential Interstate was I-295, from I-95 in the city of South Portland to I-95 in the town of Falmouth.

In the early 1970s, the Maine State Highway Commission was able to locate I295, a four-lane divided highway, through the center of the city of Portland. The effort included the relocation of Long Creek in

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South Portland, and building I-295 over marine clay deposits, using a unique vertical sand-drain system to support the embankments. The system utilized over 90,000 individual sand drains, averaging 30 feet in length, and totaling more than 500 linear miles of drains.

A new bridge and highway connector carrying Route 3 across the Kennebec River north of Augusta and connecting I-95 to coastal Maine was completed in the fall of 2004, and a new segment of highway in the heart of Portland, connecting I-295 to the Portland waterfront, was opened to traffic in the fall of 2005.

Upcoming NHS projects include a new crossing of the Penobscot River, which will carry U.S. 1 between the towns of Prospect and Verona, and will replace the WaldoHancock Bridge, a 2,040-foot-long, 206foot-tall suspension bridge built in 1931.

The new “Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory” will be a cable-stay bridge that

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

towers 460 feet above the Penobscot River and will feature a 360-degree observatory in the Prospect-side pylon.

I-295 through Portland is operating at capacity, the Maine DOT reports, and will soon need to be widened to six lanes to accommodate the traffic demands of the Greater Portland region. I-295 through Portland was originally designed so that two lanes could be added to the center, thus reducing potential adverse impacts on the community. Additional capacity and/or new configurations are currently contemplated for I-295 between Portland and Brunswick in the mid-term, as well as possible development of commuter alternatives that could include bus or rail service and increased use of park-and-ride facilities.

MARYLAND: State Launched Limited-Access Program in 1947 The state of Maryland passed a limitedaccess highway law in 1947 under Gov. Preston Lane, reports the Maryland State Highway Administration.

Portions of limited-access highways were built in Maryland before 1956 and

completed at about that time by the thenMaryland State Roads Commission, including the I-70 (U.S. 40) bypass around Frederick; I-270 (U.S. 240) between Md. 85 (then U.S. 15) and Md. 118; I-83 (U.S. 111) north of Shawan Rd. (Exit 20) to the Pennsylvania line; a small section of I-495 near I-270; I-695 between exits 5 and 8 in Linthicum, and exits 25 to 28 in Towson; I895 between U.S. 1 and 40; and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway north of Md. 175 to Baltimore.

On Nov. 4, 1956, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads approved $8 million worth of contracts for 8.1 miles of Maryland Interstate highway. Projects included two portions of the Baltimore County Beltway, one from Wilkins Ave. to U.S. 40, and the other to the Patapsco River; a stretch of the Washington National Pike from Falls Road. to Tuckerman’s Lane outside Frederick; and a section of the Frederick bypass from the Pike toward U.S. 40.

The first major section of Interstate completed under the 1956 act was I-270 (70S) from Rockville to Frederick, completed about 1959. The first urban segment of the Interstate was the Jones Falls Expressway

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FHWA PHOTO

In Massachusetts in 1963, I-95 in Attleboro-North Attleboro was graded to leave as much of the natural growth as possible in the median.

(JFX) I-83 corridor; in 1963 it was completed from the Baltimore Beltway south to Guilford Avenue in Baltimore City, but was later extended to Pratt Street and the Inner Harbor area.

The circumferential Baltimore Beltway (I-695) was completed in 1962. Maryland’s portion of the Capital Beltway (I-495) around Washington, D.C., was completed just two years later in 1964.

Herbert S. Fairbank of Baltimore authored the original Interstate plan in 1938, and is a namesake of FHWA’s TurnerFairbank Highway Research Center; Rep. George S. Fallon of Maryland worked out the compromise that resulted in the 1956 legislation; and Gov. Theodore McKeldin supported Eisenhower’s plan when other governors objected, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) reports. He initiated the 12-year program, which forged ahead with the state’s limited-access plan before the federal Interstate bill was signed. The Baltimore Beltway was dedicated to McKeldin in 2005.

Significant engineering feats in the Maryland system include I-95 with Fort McHenry Tunnel, I-68 with Sidling Hill Cut, and the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel on I-895.

Significant current and future projects include the I-95/I-495 Woodrow Wilson Bridge project on the Capital Beltway, in conjunction with the Virginia DOT, District of Columbia DOT, and FHWA. The first bridge will be complete in 2006, and the second bridge is to be completed in 2008. Others of significance include the Inter County Connector from Prince George’s to Montgomery County; the I70 Improvement Project in Frederick, Md.; and the widening of I-95 in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

As it grapples with increasing congestion, Maryland will be adding more commuter lanes; integrating light rail; adding toll road facilities; and expanding the use of its Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (CHART) and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) programs, leveraging technology to optimize roadway functionality.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

MASSACHUSETTS: “Big Dig” Helps Conclude Interstate Construction In 1956, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works – now Department of Highways – designated relocated U.S. 1 north of Boston as I-95.

Construction of I-93 north and south of Boston began immediately thereafter and became an integral link for residents of New England.

Fifty years later, reconstructed I-93 (with I-90) again stars as the centerpiece of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, a 7.8-mile system of bridges and underground highways and ramps, the most expensive public works project ever undertaken in the United States. Project planning began in 1982, ground was broken in 1991, and the first major portion – the Ted Williams Tunnel beneath Boston Harbor – opened in 1995. The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge carries I-93 north of downtown Boston, and design met the limitations of the constricted construction site, with eight lanes of I-93 cradled within two inverted Y-towers. The overall $14 billion “Big Dig” project was near completion in 2006 and constitutes some of the last remaining segments of the Interstate system to be completed.

But prior to the Interstate act in 1956, the Bay State was home to a number of limited-access highways, including the J.F. Fitzgerald Expressway, state routes 3, 128, and 24, and a portion of the Massachusetts Turnpike. Its first urban expressway was I-93 through Boston, and I-495 was the first circumferential highway constructed under the act, although most of what is now I-95 was constructed prior to the act and served as a bypass route.

William F. Callahan, highway commissioner in the 1930s and again in the 1950s, was a strong advocate for construction of limited-access highways and Interstates in the commonwealth. Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, Fred Salvacci was the driving force behind the Big Dig project on I-93 through central Boston.

Future projects include the widening of I-95 and I-93 south of Boston; elimination of the Sagamore Rotary on S.R. 3 at the entrance to Cape Cod; and the future designation of S.R. 24 as an Interstate.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: On Purpose, Home to Two-Lane Interstate The first section of Interstate by the old New Hampshire Department of Public Works and Highways was I-89 from Bow to U.S. 202/N.H. 9 in Hopkinton, which was opened in 1959. Earlier limitedaccess highways included the F.E. Everett Turnpike, authorized in 1953.

The first contract in the Granite State under the 1956 act was the F.E. Everett Turnpike (I-93) in Manchester, including bridges over Black Brook, Stark Lane, N.H. 3A, and Manchester Road totaling approximately 2.6 miles. The contract totaled $1.17 million.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation reports that the first urban segment of Interstate was I-293 through Manchester, and I-93 around Manchester – the state’s largest city – was completed in 1978.

John O. Morton served as commissioner of the New Hampshire highway department from 1955 to 1968. During his tenure, significant sections of the Interstate system in New Hampshire were designed and constructed. In 1968, the American Public Works Association named John O. Morton as one of its “Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year.”

New Hampshire’s Robert Prowse Memorial Bridge (Ash Street over I-93) in Londonderry reflects the post-World War II initiative for highway bridge designers to produce connections through welding, rather than riveting. The innovative engineering design by the New Hampshire highway department’s nationally recognized engineer, Robert Prowse, is a steel rigid frame – composed of five frames or bents – designed to function as a series of parallel two-hinged rigid frames. Its design utilizes steel cutting and innovate welding

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

NEW JERSEY: Leader in Interstate Technology, Safety

In New York State, the second deck of the George Washington Bridge (I-95) is constructed in 1963. technology to create each frame as a sculptural shape, reflecting its internal stresses, and bringing together a few large structural elements. This bridge was the first known example of all-welded steel rigid frame technology used along the national Interstate system or on primary road systems in the United States.

A four-lane highway extending I-93 through Franconia Notch that would have met existing AASHTO standards would have radically altered the scenic beauty of Franconia Notch in the White Mountains, the site of the now collapsed Old Man of the Mountain, a symbol of the State of New Hampshire. A special provision of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 permitted this segment of I-93 to be designed and built as a two-lane highway and is an early example of context-sensitive solutions. It remains the only two-lane section of Interstate in the lower 48 states.

Future projects include the planned rebuilding and widening of 19.8 miles of I-93 between Salem and Manchester, from two to four lanes in each direction ($480 million), and the completion of the I-293 Exit 5 (Granite Street) interchange to allow full exit/entrance to I-293 in both directions, which gives the heart of Manchester full access to the Interstate.

The first section of Interstate completed by the New Jersey State Highway Department was the Clinton Bypass, a 1.7-mile segment of I-78 in Hunterdon County. However, the Garden State already had been constructing limited-access or divided highways, including the Garden State Parkway, started by the New Jersey State Highway Department in 1947.

In that same year, Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll announced the plan to build the New Jersey Turnpike, with construction commencing in 1950. New Jersey constructed its first divided highway on Route 1 in Elizabeth in 1936, while the Palisades Interstate Parkway, a joint endeavor of the states of New Jersey and New York, opened in the mid-1950s.

Though completed before the 1956 act, one of the earlier urban segments was known as I-495, which was the access road in Hudson County to the Lincoln Tunnel. This portion of road is no longer designated on the system. I-676 (located around the City of Camden) – which has gone through several designation numbers – is one of the earliest circumferential Interstates to be completed in the state.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation remembers that President Woodrow Wilson, former governor of New Jersey, hosted at the White House in 1914 the founders of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), which provided the organizational structure of the states and territories that would be needed for the nation’s interstate road achievements.

One of the original founders of AASHO, Col. Edwin A. Stevens, appointed New Jersey’s Commissioner of Public Roads by Woodrow Wilson, was instrumental in working toward the early Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. Governors Driscoll, Robert B. Meyner, and Richard J. Hughes brought the leadership and vision needed for the development of limited-access highways in the state. State Highway Commissioner Dwight R.G. Palmer – along with state highway engineers including Otto H. Fritzsche, James R. Schuyler, and Jack Freidenrich – were key figures in developing the early Interstates in New Jersey.

Interstate highway development was advanced, particularly in the area of safety, using important research conducted in New Jersey. Thomas A. Edison’s invention of the light bulb, the New Jersey State Highway Department’s development and use of the “Jersey Barrier,” and the invention of the breakaway sign by NJDOT Engineer Richard A. Strizki have all contributed to safety on Interstate and high-speed highways.

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FHWA PHOTO

Additional lanes will be constructed along I-93 between Salem and Manchester, and also through Concord, the state capital. Major interchange reconstruction and bridge work over the Connecticut River is planned along I-89 in Lebanon, N.H. Otherwise, it’s anticipated that new park-and-ride lots and enhanced bus service – as well as ITS enhancements – will assist with the management of traffic, and reduce or delay the need for larger capital projects to address capacity.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

I-280 and I-287 involved significant engineering challenges in making cuts through mountains. In the case of I-280, a 7-mile temporary railroad was constructed to move earth and rock during construction of the highway. On I-78, the department incorporated significant environmental elements into the design, including overpasses for continuity of wildlife passage within a nature reservation.

The NJDOT is committed to smartgrowth efforts. Incorporation of new technologies, such as intelligent transportation systems, will also be integral to future improvements along the Interstate system and within the overall multi-modal transportation network in the state.

NEW YORK: Early On, the Empire State Embraced Limited-Access Highways New York State had extensive programs to build expressways and parkways from the 1930s through the 1970s, reports the New York State Department of Transportation. The expressways are used by commercial and non-commercial traffic, while the parkways are reserved for noncommercial vehicles only.

Prior to the creation of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways in 1956, New York had a system of tolled “thruways” that later became incorporated into the network.

New York now has 1,674.73 miles of Interstate highways across 29 routes.

The earliest urban expressways were in New York City and included the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Major Degan Expressway, the Nassau Expressway, and the Van Wyck Expressway. The earliest parkways were on Long Island and included the Bethpage State Parkway, the Grand Central Parkway, the Northern State Parkway, the Wantaugh State Parkway, and the Ocean Parkway.

The New York State Department of Public Works’ first construction contract under the 1956 Interstate program was a 1.5-mile segment of I-81 in the City of Syracuse. Today, New York has six “primary

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Interstates” (two digit numbers), and a halfmile of I-78, which is the Holland Tunnel.

Additionally, the state has 19 triple-digit arterials or beltways that service urban traffic. The network has been completed at a cost of nearly $5 billion, and there is at least one Interstate highway in 47 of the state’s 62 counties.

The Empire State’s Interstate system boasts a number of significant engineering

landmarks, including the George Washington Bridge, Tappan Zee Bridge, and Verrazano Narrows Bridge carrying I278 between Brooklyn and Staten Island.

New York State will make National Highway System capital construction investments worth $7.8 billion during the five-year period ending March 31, 2010.

Infrastructure preservation and rehabilitation will account for 59 percent of the total

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

PENNSYLVANIA: More to Its Highways than Famed Turnpike

Top: Crosstown Boulevard – now I-579, a connector freeway skirting the east edge of Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle – nears completion in this 1964 photo.

Above: Vermont's I-91 replaced U.S. 5 as a major traffic-carrying facility in this corridor, seen here in 1967.

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Pennsylvania’s famous Pennsylvania Turnpike is highly regarded as the long-range, limited-access predecessor of the Interstate highway system begun in 1956, but there’s much more to Pennsylvania’s highway history than just the turnpike. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission opened the nation’s first large-scale, limited-access highway in 1940, between Carlisle/Middlesex, Pa., and Irwin, Pa. The now-named Pennsylvania Department of Highways (within PennDOT), started building expressways in the early 1950s. Among those routes that later became Interstates were the Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia; the Parkway East in Pittsburgh; U.S. 111, the HarrisburgYork-Baltimore Expressway; and U.S. 22 and the Lehigh Valley Thruway.

The first urban expressway in the commonwealth was the Parkway East in Pittsburgh, between Churchill and the Boulevard of the Allies, opened on June 5, 1953. The western section of the Schuylkill Expressway between Valley Forge and Conshohocken was opened in 1952.

A Williamsport, Pa.-based group, the Keystone Shortway Association, had its genesis in a group of businesspeople who formed in 1938 to push for a “Short Route” between Ohio and New York that would pass close to Williamsport, the Pennsylvania Department of Highways reports. World War II intervened and the idea had to be put off, but a similar group gathered in 1952 in Williamsport to again push for an expressway across Pennsylvania.

The name, Keystone Shortway, was suggested in 1954, and the local state Sen. Z.H. Confair became a leading proponent of the idea. I-80 is formally named the Z.H. Confair Memorial Highway in Pennsylvania. Prior to the signing of the Interstate bill, this route was envisioned as a toll road. The Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge that carries I-80 between New Jersey and Pennsylvania opened in 1953. The first section of roadway opened in 1960, and I80 was completed across the state in 1970.

FHWA PHOTOS

investment. Capacity and economic development investments will account for 26 percent of the total, with safety investments at 10 percent of the total. The remaining 5 percent of capital investment will be for maintenance, operations, and security.

Conversion of New York Route 17, the Southern Tier Expressway, to become I-86 is a major ongoing capital investment in the Elmira-to-Binghamton segment of the corridor. This corridor connects I-90 in the vicinity of Erie, Pa., with I-87 in New York’s Hudson River Valley, about 54 miles north of New York City.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

Pennsylvania’s first use of slip form paving was in I-80 in the fall of 1966, in the rugged mountain area near Snow Shoe, Centre County. Pennsylvania describes a number of notable bridges on I-80: the Allegheny River crossing near Emlenton, 270 feet high; Clarion River Bridge, 197 feet high; Deer Creek Bridge, 195 feet high; and twin viaduct bridges between Clearfield and Centre counties, 190 feet high.

Work continues in the Keystone State.

Completion of I-99 southwest of the State College area, and a proposed interchange between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-95 near Philadelphia, are the largest outstanding projects under way on the Interstate system in Pennsylvania. In the meantime, PennDOT has developed a Transportation Systems Operations Plan that envisions a coordinated approach involving Intelligent Transportation Systems, Traffic Management Centers, and other innovations to better manage congestion on the state’s highways.

RHODE ISLAND: Ocean State’s First Cloverleaf in 1947 The first section of Interstate completed by the Rhode Island Department of Public Works – now the Rhode Island Department of Transportation – was near the capital, the Providence section of I195. Prior to 1956, the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations completed Route 146 in 1947. It contained the first cloverleaf intersection built in the state, at routes 146 and 116.

Rhode Island’s first urban segment of Interstate was I-195 from the Washington Bridge East to Watchemocket Square in East Providence, and was completed in 1959. Today, the eastern half of this highway is under reconstruction. The first circumferential Interstate was I-295 around Providence.

While not on the Interstate system, a spectacular recent bridge replacement in Rhode Island is the Newport Bridge across Narragansett Bay.

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Rhode Island is planning a GARVEEfunded project that will include the replacement of the Washington Bridge and the relocation of I-195, both in Providence.

“Any major increase in the capacity of the Interstate system will be extremely expensive,” the R.I. DOT reports.

“Reducing the total traffic volumes and the peak-hour volumes is a more cost-effective approach and should be one of our major

goals. This could be accomplished through ride-sharing programs, expansion of mass transit systems and the use of flextime work hours. Intelligent transportation systems need to be emphasized to allow motorists choices in their commuting routes. Our goal should be to provide motorists with this information in their vehicles so they can make on-the-spot decisions.”

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the East

WEST VIRGINIA: First Segment Opened in 1961

In West Virginia in 1967, the East Portal of the twin tube tunnel carrying I-70 under Wheeling Hill in Wheeling, W.Va., is completed.

VERMONT: State Has Shortest Interstate in New England In Vermont, the first contract under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act was I91, Guilford-Brattleboro, completed in 1958 by the Vermont Department of Highways. It was part of the first section of Interstate in Vermont, I-91 from the Massachusetts border to Brattleboro.

The first urban segment of Interstate was I-89 in Burlington between Exits 13 (I-189, South Burlington) and 15 (Winooski). While the Green Mountain State doesn’t have any circumferential Interstate, it does have a portion of S.R. 289 built northeast of Burlington, the largest city, locally called the “circumferential highway.”

In the week of Sept. 19-25, 1965, the White River Junction interchange – the major interchange between I-91 and I-89 – was opened with a ceremony featuring Gov. Philip H. Hoff and highway commissioner Russell A. Holden. A luncheon was provid-

ed in White River Junction with a motorcade around the interchange afterwards.

On Sept. 19, 1966, there was a grand international celebration that included dignitaries from the United States and Canada, which included President Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey; Governor-General of Canada Georges Philas Vanier; and Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. This gala event marked the opening of I-89 into Canada from Highgate, Vt., as the United States’ gateway to the Expo ‘67 World’s Fair in Montreal.

Today’s Vermont Agency of Transportation notes a number of engineering or environmental designs within the state, including design of rock ledges in the medians of I-89, I-93, and I-91; rare ridge steel girder bridges called “grasshoppers;” sculptures in some rest areas on I-89 and I-91; designation of the Sharon northbound rest area on I-89 as a Vietnam Veterans Memorial/Museum, with a unique engineering design that

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In June 1961, the West Virginia State Road Commission opened 7.7 miles of I81 south of Martinsburg (Berkeley County) to south of the U.S. 11 interchange, complementing the approximately 30 miles of four-lane or limited-access highway along U.S. 35, U.S. 50, U.S. 60, and U.S. 119.

However, the state’s first contract under the 1959 federal aid road act was the Benedict Road Bridge, on I-64, Cabell County, in Culloden, which was awarded in 1957 at a cost of $131,900. The Mountain State’s first urban expressway was I-70 from Exit 2A to Exit 4, and its first and only circumferential Interstate is I-470 around Wheeling.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation, Division of Highways, observes that the inclusion of the West Virginia Turnpike (I-77 Toll Road) into the Interstate system required a special act of Congress.

Currently, the Division of Highways is working on several National Highway System routes in various stages of development. These include the King Coal Highway, the Tolsia Highway, the Coalfields Expressway, the U.S. 220 NHS Corridor, Logan to Man improvements, the Mon-Fayette Expressway, and extension of I-68.

FHWA PHOTO

includes recycled water treatment; two rare scenic turnouts on I-91 with dramatic views; historic corduroy Crown Point Military Road Underpass on I-91, the road first constructed in 1759-60; 12 designed cattle/team underpasses on I91 and I-89; and the shortest Interstate in New England, I-189 in South Burlington, covering 1.5 miles.

Except for widenings and other safety improvements, the Vermont Interstate system will basically remain the same, except for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) improvements such as remote roadway weather stations, roadway video cameras, and remote ice/salt monitoring.

Advertiser’s Feature

Sustainable Interstate Highways: The Next 50 Years … and Then Some

By Hal Kassoff

Much has been written and said about the impacts on natural, human, and built environments stemming from 50 years of Interstate highway construction — effects on water and air, flora and fauna, suburban sprawl and social equity. Without question, the deployment of well over 40,000 miles of superhighways spreading across the American landscape during the past half century has had a profound and transforming influence on the physical, social, and economic well-being of our country.

On balance, however, based upon attitude surveys over the years, most of our citizens would very likely agree that we are fortunate to have implemented such a system when we did — when we had the financial resources and the political will to achieve such a vast and far-reaching vision. Most would also likely say that even with its ecological and societal shortcomings, the great “mobility-for-the-masses” breakthrough provided by the combination of affordable motor vehicles and a ubiquitous system of highspeed, controlled access highways has been intensely beneficial to the long-term economic well-being of our nation and the personal mobility of its citizens.

But even the most ardent Interstate advocates among us would likely concede that, measured by current statutory and regulatory regimes and standards, the Interstate system as a whole presents large-scale opportunities for future improvement.

To be sure, a system conceived in the 1930s, and planned and funded in the 1950s, cannot be expected to have met environmental requirements and ecological best practices that did not emerge until the 1970s and later. Similarly, those involved with the consuming challenges of initial deployment of this vast network could not be expected to have appreciated the dynamic opportunities that periodic renewal of the system would afford over the long run.

Interstates were designed to accommodate the demands of 20- to 25-year traffic forecasts. This became the primary time horizon that planners and engineers typically embraced. Now, with the early Interstates having reached their planning horizon twice over, and with most of the rest of the network having reached first-generation planning time frames with traffic and axle loadings well beyond initial forecasts, the need for major renewal and reconstruction on a periodic (though hopefully less frequent) cycle has become eminently clear. Many first-generation pavements and bridges have become functionally and physically obsolete, to the point that maintenance and repair are no longer viable options, and reconstruction projects requiring replacement instead of rehabilitation become the only practical solution.

The complete replacement of pavements and sub-bases, of decks and superstructures, of drainage and lighting has spawned a different classification of road replacement projects — perhaps most suitably characterized as “new construction on existing location.” These projects, for all intents and purposes, represent a new opportunity to build an Interstate highway on the same general location and in the same general right-of-way as the first generation facility — but to standards of physical and contextual quality well beyond the initial version. An enormous opportunity emerges for this new highway on existing location to surpass the pre-existing condition, not only from a functional perspective (structural, safety, service criteria), but from a community and environmental perspective as well.

Thus, the need to renew our Interstate highway network over time affords a largely unanticipated opportunity to also renew our expectations of how we might view its effects on the natural, built, and human environments. We can now permit ourselves to consider the potential for “better than before” outcomes in both form as well as function instead of falling into the mindset of merely minimizing and mitigating unavoidable harm. We can proactively seek opportunities for achieving “unavoidable good” that can result when we allow ourselves to think beyond our core objectives of more durable pavements, stronger bridges, and smoother traffic flow. We can explore the possibilities — to reduce noise and improve the quality of runoff, restore cultural resources and reclaim land for open space, accommodate other transportation modes and foster more desirable land-use planning. We can do these things, and more, with the next generation of highway on existing location, and often at relatively little or even no increase in cost.

This is the exciting opportunity afforded by what may seem to some as a rather mundane need to periodically rehabilitate our Interstate highways. It is an opportunity for affordable but significant contextual creativity. It is an opportunity through our actions today to foster a future that preserves the ability of generations to come to have what we have had the privilege of enjoying … and then some. It is an opportunity for a “better than before” ethic to be built upon the combined foundation of life-cycle asset management and environmental stewardship. It is an opportunity to transform our premier Interstate highway infrastructure into a model of sustainability as it is renewed over the next 50 years.

Hal Kassoff is senior vice president, Parsons Brinckerhoff.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the South

The

INTERSTATES in the SOUTH

By Tom Kuennen Since the 1960s, the South has boomed – and so have the Interstates

Since the 1960s, the American South has seen the some of the greatest economic growth in North America, and the South’s Interstates have played a big role. Here’s how America’s Southern and central-Southern states have constructed their Interstates and are building for tomorrow, compiled from American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) state DOT questionnaires distributed exclusively for this publication early in 2006.

NORTH CAROLINA DOT

ALABAMA: I-22 Is New Interstate on New Alignment Alabama is working in concert with Tennessee and Mississippi to build I-22, one of the few new Interstate highways on new alignment to be constructed in the post-Interstate era.

In 1959, when the Alabama Highway Department opened 28 miles of I-65 from Kimberly in Jefferson County – extending north to Cullman in Cullman County – it was the first Interstate section to open in that state. I-65 in Cullman County also was the first Alabama contract under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act. The first route completed in its entirety was I-85 from Montgomery to the Georgia state line, in 1971.

The Interstates were Alabama’s first limited-access highways, reports the Alabama Department of Transportation today. The first urban expressways in Alabama were I-85 from Montgomery to Mt. Meigs, and I-10 around Michigan Avenue in Mobile, both of which opened in the late 1960s. I-359 in Tuscaloosa County was the first of Alabama’s three-digit number beltways to fully open to traffic, dedicated on Sept. 13, 1983.

HOV lanes are constructed on I-77, approaching downtown Charlotte, N.C. Alabama is proud of the George Wallace Tunnel in Mobile, part of I-10, which carries I-10 traffic under Mobile Bay in the heart of downtown Mobile.

Alabama completed construction on its mainline Interstate highways in 1985, with a dedication ceremony for a 14-mile segment on I-65 from Fultondale to Warrior on Dec. 19 of that year.

Since then, Alabama has been working diligently on the future I-22, under construction on new alignment now. When completed, I-22 will follow the U.S. 78 corridor along a 176-mile route from Memphis, Tenn., to Birmingham, and will connect I-55 and I-40 in

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a partner in improving highway safety celebrates 50 years of the U.S. Interstate Highway American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA PHOTO

Interstates in the South

the northwest, to I-65 and I-20 in the southeast, passing through the cities of Holly Springs, Miss., New Albany, Miss., Tupelo, Miss., Hamilton, Ala., and Jasper, Ala. Other major projects are the widening of portions of I-65 and I20, and rehabilitation projects along various portions of I-65, I-20, and other urban Interstates. Planning began in 2005 to extend I-85 from Montgomery west toward the Mississippi line, and work began in 2006 to widen the I-65 bridge over the Alabama River in Montgomery, and to finish widening that urban Interstate to a total of six lanes from the capital city’s southwestern gateway to its northern gateway. Additional lanes are being added along more congested portions of Alabama‘s Interstates in urban areas. Like other states, Alabama is expanding its use of ITS technologies to manage traffic and keep the public better informed of real-time driving conditions.

ARKANSAS: Native Son Was Interstate System Architect I-55 from West Memphis to Marion (built as U.S. 61 Bypass in West Memphis) is considered by the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department to be its first section of Interstate. Prior to the Interstate system, the Arkansas Highway Department managed limited-access highways like U.S. 70 from the Saline County Line into Pulaski County, and U.S. 61 in Crittenden County.

Two contracts let on July 10, 1957, that were paid under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act’s 90/10 split for Interstate construction were I-30 from Benton-West (bridges), and I-55 from Marion-North (additional lanes), and constitute Arkansas’ first projects under the act. The Razorback State’s first urban segment of Interstate was I-30 from the Saline County Line to Cloverdale in Pulaski County, in October 1958.

Alfred E. Johnson, Sr., served as chief engineer of the Arkansas Highway Department from 1947 to 1955. In the early 1950s, he was chairman of the Planning and Design Policy Committee of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO, now AASHTO). In that capacity, he was one of the principal architects of the original Interstate system. His committee was responsible for creating the design standards for our nation’s Interstate highways.

In 1955, he left Arkansas to become executive director of AASHO, a position he held until his retirement in 1972. In honor of Johnson’s service to our nation’s highways, AASHTO has created the “Alfred E. Johnson Achievement Award,” one of its most prestigious awards.

Arkansas is proud to have been the first state to complete its original allotment of Interstate mileage, and the only state to initially build its entire Interstate system out of concrete. The Bobby Hopper Tunnel on I-540 in Washington County is a 1,595-foot-long tunnel through Bunyard Mountain that was constructed to preserve the natural beauty of the Ozark Mountains in northwest Arkansas.

In addition, 139 bridges with a total length of over 60,000 feet and other design considerations were included on this new Interstate

In Arkansas, an interchange on I-30 is completed in 1960. construction to ensure that the facility would fit in with the surrounding environment.

Arkansas also is called “The Natural State,” and its highways are designed as such. There, a special fence was constructed to prevent aquatic turtles (such as the red eared slider) from crossing future I-440 in Pulaski County and being injured or killed by traffic.

Wetland mitigation for I-530 in Jefferson County allowed the state to build a freeway in and among Bayou Bartholomew.

Construction of this Interstate was accomplished without causing negative impacts to the floodplain, and mitigation was carried out on-site in the same watershed so that the function of the bayou remained intact.

Arkansas is planning construction of the congressionally-designated High Priority Corridor 1 (future I-49 on new location in western Arkansas); this corridor will eventually extend from Kansas City, Mo., to Shreveport, La. Also part of Corridor No. 1 is construction of the U.S. 71 Bypass of Bella Vista, for which an investment-grade study is under way to determine if this new highway might be the state’s first toll facility.

FLORIDA: Alligator Alley an Ecological Achievement The first section of Interstate constructed by the Florida State Road Board was I-4 from Plant City to Lakeland, opened in 1959.

Florida did have limited-access highways prior to 1956, the date of the Federal-Aid Highway Act creating the Interstate system, including the Gandy Causeway, Venetian Causeway, Pensacola Beach

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Bridge, Conners Highway, Overseas Highway, Jacksonville Expressway, and the Sunshine Skyway.

Florida’s first contract let under the Interstate program was for I-95 in Volusia County from U.S. 92 west of Daytona Beach north to the Tomoka River.

The Sunshine State’s first urban segment of Interstate was I-4 in Lakeland, Polk County, and the first circumferential Interstates were I-75, originally through Tampa, and I-295 around Jacksonville.

The first section of Interstate constructed by the Georgia Highway Department was I-75, from the Florida state line to Tifton,

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GEORGIA DOT PHOTO

GEORGIA: Peach State Home to Clay Commission Namesake

FLORIDA DOT PHOTO

Top: The completed 36th Street interchange on the Miami Expressway, Miami, Fla., is seen here. Above: Magic moment: Atlanta's "Perimeter" I-285 circumferential highway is opened in 1969 by then-Gov. Lester Maddox on the hood of a convertible.

The Florida Department of Transportation is especially proud of a stretch of 78 miles of I-75 traversing south Florida, known to all as “Alligator Alley.” This roadway runs through the Everglades ecosystem, the only subtropical wilderness in the continental United States. Because of its relationship with the Everglades, Alligator Alley is of interest to students of ecology, water management, agriculture, and recreation.

Alligator Alley runs through Big Cypress National Preserve, the Miccosukee Indian Reservations, and Water Conservation Area 3, and to the north of Everglades National Park. However, the park’s abundance of and variety of life depends upon the flow of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee to the south, across Alligator Alley, to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Canals run on both sides of the roadway, and numerous bridges permit the continuous flow of massive quantities of water underneath. Several animal crossings facilitate the continued vitality of the Everglades. Notable species using the crossings and canals include alligators, panthers, deer, ducks, and egrets. Alligator Alley is also a major transportation artery for Florida.

It’s been a toll road continuously for over 30 years, having been constructed as a toll facility prior to designation as part of the Interstate system, with average annual daily traffic (AADT) approaching 20,000 vehicles a day.

The Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge (1987) is part of I275, connecting St. Petersburg and Bradenton. It is considered to be an outstanding example of a cable-stayed concrete bridge, one of the longest such bridges in the world, with a total length of 29,040 feet. The deck rises 190 feet above the waterline to permit large vessels to enter the Port of Tampa, and its pylons rise an additional 240 feet above the deck, making this one of the tallest bridges in the United States.

Through the recently created Strategic Intermodal System (SIS), the State of Florida is integrating its Interstate network with other modes and facilities. In addition to the Interstate, Florida’s Turnpike, and selected other state roads, the SIS includes aviation, rail, and seaport facilities. Improved connections and coordination of facilities is expected to result in more efficient use of and greater economic benefit from the Interstate system.

In coming years, the Florida DOT anticipates greater and more efficient use of user fees to finance the expansion of the Interstate system in Florida. Open Road Tolling (ORT), electronic toll collection under normal highway driving conditions, will both increase revenues and decrease delays on highways. Toll charges will vary by time of day and day of week. Additionally, the Interstate system will make greater use of Special Use Lanes (SULs), some tolled and some not.

Major categories of SULs are High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, truck lanes, and reversible flow lanes.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA PHOTO

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The I-210 high-level bridge over the Calcasieu River – part of a bypass of Lake Charles, La. – was completed in 1976.

Ga. However, the first section under contract, I-75 near Forsyth in Monroe County, was well to the north of that project.

Prior to the Interstate system, Georgia’s sole limited-access highway was Atlanta’s Downtown Connector Expressway, through the heart of the city. This expressway, built in the 1940s, was later converted into Interstates 75 and 85. Its I-285 – which is Atlanta’s beltway – is known popularly as “the Perimeter,” which officially opened in October 1969 with then-Gov. Lester Maddox riding on the hood of a convertible through a paper barrier.

Gen. Lucius Clay – a native of Marietta, a retired four-star general, and the architect of the Berlin Airlift – was tapped by President Eisenhower to head his President’s Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program, commonly called the “Clay Committee.” The committee was tasked with creating a plan to finance and build a national highway system. Although the Clay Committee’s plan was largely rejected by Congress, the general locations and cities that were to be connected through the Interstate highway system stuck.

The Georgia Department of Transportation went all out for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, accelerating already planned transportation projects and improvements and shortening the delivery time for many of those projects from 10 to three years. The first Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) to integrate the management of interstate and arterial traffic systems was implemented to help manage the expected volumes of traffic from the Olympics, combining monitoring, traveler information, and incident management.

Current exciting projects in Georgia include the single largest project in Georgia DOT history, the rebuilding of the I-85/S.R. 316 interchange in northeast Georgia. At an estimated construction cost of $147 million, the project includes building 13 new bridges, 17 lane miles of new High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes and 11 lane miles of new collector distributor lanes, and resurfacing. The contract was awarded as a joint venture between two major contractors, and work is estimated to be complete in 40 months.

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Georgia also is in the process of widening all of rural I-75 through Georgia from Florida to Tennessee from four to six lanes.

Of the total 355 miles of I-75, only 35 miles are left to be widened from four to six lanes. And the Georgia DOT is widening all of rural I-95 through Georgia from Florida to South Carolina; of the total 113 miles on I-95, only 32 miles are left to be widened from four to six lanes. Plans are under discussion to contraflow I-95 for northbound motorists in case of a major evacuation event, such as a hurricane.

A proposal has been submitted to the Georgia DOT to add highway and bus rapid transit capacity to the I-75/575 Northwest Corridor to improve safety and save time for all commuters. The proposal also includes an option to add barrier-separated truck-only lanes (TOLs), which could improve roadway safety and further reduce congestion. With either option, all existing general-purpose lanes will remain free. At an estimated cost of $1.8 billion for both options, construction could begin as early as 2008 after completion of the environmental study, preliminary engineering, and other development activities. Depending on which options are included, construction could be completed in the 2011 to 2013 time frame, 10 to 20 years earlier than the currently planned Georgia DOT project.

LOUISIANA: Pelican State Anticipates Future I-69 Louisiana has 893.3 miles of Interstate, some of which predate the formal creation of the federal Interstate system through the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. For example, the

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NORTH CAROLINA DOT PHOTO

Twin tunnels are seen on I-40 as it travels through the western mountains of Haywood County, N.C.

existing Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles, completed in 1950, and some approach roadways, completed in the 1940s as part of U.S. 90, became part of I-10.

Portions of the Pontchartrain Expressway in the New Orleans area were completed in 1957 and eventually redesignated as I-10. And the Baton Rouge Expressway, completed in 1957, eventually was redesignated as I-110.

The first sections of Interstate completed under the 1956 act by the Louisiana Department of Highways – urban portions of I-10 in Baton Rouge and New Orleans – saw completion in 1963. Other key dates for the Interstate system in Louisiana include 1968, I-210 Prien Lake Bridge over the Calcasieu Ship Channel completed; 1970, I-10 between Lake Charles and Lafayette completed and opened to traffic; 1974, I-20 between Monroe and the Mississippi state line completed and opened; 1979, final links of I-55 between New Orleans and the Mississippi state line dedicated; I-610, New Orleans, completed; and 1988, I-49 from Opelousas to Alexandria completed and opened. In 1976, the I-210 loop around Lake Charles was completed and opened – Louisiana’s first circumferential Interstate.

In the works by today’s Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is I-49 north, from Shreveport to the Arkansas state line. The project is made up of 11 segments. All of the right-of-way needed for the project will be purchased with the current funding from SAFETEA-LU. So far, two segments have been let for construction. However, based on today’s estimates, Louisiana is approximately $200 million short of the funding needed to complete the corridor, the DOTD reports.

Another project is I-49 south from Lafayette to New Orleans, along the corridor of existing U.S. 90. The DOTD and FHWA are conducting the environmental and engineering analyses necessary to upgrade the U.S. 90 corridor from I-49 in Lafayette to I-10 in New Orleans, at a distance of 150 miles. I-49 south will eventually meet up with I-310 in Boutte.

Louisiana also will benefit from future I-69, which will link Indianapolis to the lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Known nationally as Section of Independent Utility (SIU) 15, this portion of I-69 will run between Stonewall in DeSoto Parish and Haughton in Bossier Parish, at a distance of 35 miles.

Eric Kalivoda, Louisiana DOTD assistant secretary of planning and programming, reports that in his state the reliance on the Interstate system for the movement of people, goods, and services continues to grow.

Much of the system in urban areas already needs additional capacity. This need will extend into many rural areas in the future.

Direct user charges are likely to be needed to fund major expansions and reconstruction of the system. The need for longer-lasting pavement and pavement-marking materials will intensify. Advanced traveler information and incident management systems will be deployed virtually throughout the Interstate network. Ramp metering and other ITS technologies will be deployed in urban areas and selected rural areas to regulate traffic flow during peak periods and when incidents destabilize the system.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

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Louisiana’s ITS program will focus on equipping the Interstate and major highway network with the best available technologies while capitalizing on its existing communications infrastructure in an effort to improve traffic flow, reliability, and safety on the existing transportation facilities, said Stephen Glascock, Louisiana DOTD traffic engineer and services administrator.

The department will deploy systems on the Interstates within the state’s urbanized boundaries of Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, and Lafayette, and plans to operate these systems through regional, multi-agency Traffic Management Centers (TMC). These regional TMCs will be networked into Louisiana’s communications backbone and, along with rural deployments, will be networked back to a statewide TMC located at DOTD headquarters in Baton Rouge. The statewide TMC will provide backup control of the ITS system during off-peak hours, nights, and weekends to provide round-the-clock monitoring of the transportation system.

MISSISSIPPI: Camille Precautions Paid Off When Katrina Struck The Mississippi State Highway Department’s first contract under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act was for sections of I-55 in Desoto County, and its first urban segment of Interstate was I-59 inside Laurel in 1959.

Today, the Mississippi Department of Transportation reports that I-110 in Biloxi, one of the shortest Interstate segments at barely three miles, was added to the Interstate system as a direct result of Hurricane Camille in 1969. I-110 extends from U.S. 90 on the beach across the Back Bay of Biloxi – utilizing its unique “trumpet” ramp that extends over the Gulf of Mexico before joining U.S. 90 – to I-10. From the Back Bay south the highway is elevated, and all the interchanges south of the Back Bay are one-half access points (two ramps only on the south side of the surface streets). This design feature ensures maximum northbound access for hurricane evacuation. The purpose and need for this

short but most vital Interstate segment was underscored when Katrina struck.

Like Alabama, Mississippi is preparing for future I-69 in the northwest portion of the state. In the meantime, the Mississippi DOT will have four Traffic Management Centers that will assist with incident and congestion management for the entire state.

The statewide Traffic Management Center (TMC) is located in Jackson and also serves as the Jackson Regional Center. The DOT has installed a Metro Jackson Fiber Ring to serve as the telecommunications hub for the statewide MSTraffic Network. A direct fiber extension of this ring is planned between the TMC and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency’s (MEMA’s) new headquarters. Other ITS networks will extend across the state from suburban Memphis, where they will be networked with that city’s system via the Tennessee DOT, to Southaven, then to Hattiesburg and the Gulf Coast.

The MSTraffic Web site (www.mstraffic.com) gives Mississippi citizens and visitors real-time traffic information; the DOT plans to expand this service by offering drive-times and congestion data to the public. The DOT is looking into ways to send this information to PDA devices and on-board navigation systems being installed in vehicles.

NORTH CAROLINA: Old ‘Good Roads State’ Living Up to Reputation Best known as the Tarheel State, North Carolina was known as the “Good Roads State” in the early 20th century. One hundred years later, it’s doing its best to recapture that tradition.

North Carolina began building limitedaccess highways that would later become part of the Interstate system as early as 1949, reports the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The Lexington Bypass (U.S. 29 and 70) was the first completed segment and is now a part of I-85. The Lumberton Bypass (U.S. 301) was completed in 1950 and became a part of I-95.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

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The first section of Interstate completed by the old North Carolina State Highway Commission was on I-40, a 3-mile section of the East-West Expressway in Winston-Salem. This was opened to traffic in early 1958.

The first contract using 90 percent federal funds was for drilling core samples of rock for the Pigeon River section of I-40 in Haywood County, in the amount of $47,090. This was let on Sept.

20, 1956. The first construction project funded was the paving of a section of I-95 in Harnett and Johnston Counties let in May 1957 (one month ahead of the paving on the I-85 Charlotte Bypass).

The first urban segment of Interstate was a 5-mile segment of I-277 in Charlotte (I-77 spur from I-85 to U.S. 74), which opened in May 1989, and the first circumferential Interstate was the 25-mile Raleigh Beltline (I-440) that opened in August 1983.

The last section of I-40 from Benson to Magnolia opened in 1990, completing this transcontinental Interstate route from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington. At 2,555 miles, I-40 is the third longest Interstate in the United States.

North Carolina’s spectacular western mountains required that some sections of Interstate be built over rugged terrain, and required extensive engineering expertise, including I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge in Haywood County, I-26 through Saluda and across the Green River, the I-240 Beaucatcher Tunnel in Asheville, and I-26 from Marshall to Sams Gap. Some current and future projects on the NHS in North Carolina include upgrading of U.S. 19 and 23 to Interstate standards as part of the I-26 corridor; completing the Charlotte Outer Loop; Eastern and Western Loop of Greensboro; the Winston-Salem Beltway; the Fayetteville Outer Loop; and Wilmington Bypass. Two new Interstates also are on the agenda, I-73 and I-74.

North Carolina is continually expanding the use of ITS along its Interstates, as well as other major routes. In late 1999, the NC DOT launched the use of the Traveler Information Management System, or TIMS, to inform the public and media outlets via a Web site about road conditions across the state. The system is continually updated by NC DOT field personnel and includes information about construction, maintenance, and weather incidents affecting North Carolina’s Interstate, U.S., and state routes.

In 2004, TIMS was taken a step further with the launch of 511, the state’s free, real-time travel information number. Additionally, through the use of a statewide network of traffic cameras and dynamic message signs, NC DOT personnel in one of three traffic management centers can monitor traffic flow along major Interstate routes and notify motorists in real time of congestion and incidents along the roadway.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Palmetto State Looking Forward to I-73 The first Interstate contract let by the South Carolina Highway Department was for I-26/I-126 from Broad River to near Irmo, awarded Jan. 25, 1957, for grading and drainage. I-26/I-126 from

Columbia to near Pomaria was the first stretch of Interstate to be constructed in the Palmetto State.

Its first limited-access highway was the Sumter Bypass (U.S. 76 and 378), with contract awarded February 1957 and opened in November 1958. The first urban segment of Interstate was I-126, which connected Columbia, the capital, with I-26, both of which were opened on Sept. 7, 1960.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation today remembers chief highway commissioner Claude R. McMillan, who forecast that “the Interstate system would be the greatest public works construction program [the] world has ever known,” as he testified before the House Public Works Committee as president of AASHO. McMillan urged Congress to pass a bill to set up advance Interstate system apportionments so states could plan their future construction programs.

McMillan, who died in 1961, was succeeded by Silas N. Pearman, who is remembered as “the man who built the Interstates.”

South Carolina anticipates the coming construction of I-73, a new Interstate to run between Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., at the Canadian border, to near Myrtle Beach. In South Carolina, I-73 will be approximately 90 miles in length, and will facilitate tourism to Myrtle Beach, already an enormous tourist draw.

The Palmetto State’s congestion-management efforts will grow based on expansion of the state’s incident response units, which will expand as needed especially into rural areas, the SC DOT reports.

TENNESSEE: Sen. Gore Sr. Crafted 1956 Interstate Act The first section of the Interstate system completed by the Tennessee Department of Highways was I-65, a 1.8-mile section in Ardmore at the Tennessee/Alabama line, opened Nov. 15, 1958.

Prior to the 1956 act, Tennessee’s limited-access highways included the 21-mile, $1.5 million Norris Freeway, built in 1934 as a component to Norris Dam, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s first hydroelectric project; and the first urban expressway, East-West Expressway, 1-mile long, which eventually became part of I-40 though Knoxville, was built in 1952. This section figured into the Volunteer State’s first Interstate contract, a contract on a section of I-40 in Knoxville let in 1956 to place fencing on the East-West Expressway.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation today honors Sen. Albert Gore, Sr., who was the Senate sponsor of the 1956 Interstate legislation. Also of historic import, a Supreme Court decision in 1971 on section 4(f) of the U.S. DOT Act of 1966 concluded the state could not build through Overton Park in Memphis. That section of I-40 was never completed, and this decision defined 4(f) cases nationwide for the next 30 years.

Tennessee’s eastern mountains posed challenges to construction of the system. The completion of the Monteagle Mountain segment on I-24 in the 1960s northwest of Chattanooga provided safe

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passage for motorists on a previously hazardous mountain pass.

The construction of I-26 in Unicoi County to the North Carolina line in 1995 required the encapsulation of more than 70,000 cubic yards of pyritic rock – at a cost of approximately $2 million – to prevent acid drainage from polluting the mountain streams.

The Interstate system in Memphis spans the Mississippi River over two dramatic bridges. They are flanked by two historic bridges that stand as monuments to transportation before the Interstate system. The southernmost vehicular bridge was built in 1949 and was incorporated into the system later as I-55. Built in 1967, the I-40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge lies to the north and features a distinctive ‘M’ shape. The DOT observes that Nashville is one of only four cities in the United States with six legs of Interstates converging within its limits.

In the future, Tennessee will participate in construction of new I-69 from Indianapolis to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The DOT reports that rural Interstates are expected to be widened, while capacity improvements of urban systems will depend mainly on encouraging alternate transportation forms and efficiency through intelligent transportation systems.

TEXAS: Frontage Roads, Turns Distinguish Lone Star Interstates The Lone Star State’s Interstates are distinguished by their extensive system of one-way frontage roads, fed by “Texas Turns,” which are abundant U-turn lanes under overpasses. This is the legacy of Dewitt C. Greer, chief administrator of the Texas Highway Department during the construction of the Interstate system.

During Greer’s tenure with the department, the number of miles of paved roads in Texas grew from 22,000 to more than 72,000.

Greer believed that these new Interstates should serve local and “interregional” traffic as well as long-haul through traffic, so Texas Interstates and freeways have many more access points than those in other states.

With Greer’s new standards for Texas Interstates, the right-ofway was to be 150 feet, plus another 100 feet for frontage roads, with the caveat that the specifications could be changed in locations where such width was impractical. In addition, as the Texas Highway Department was bound not to eliminate access to adjoining property on any existing road without paying property owners, those highways that were improved to meet federal standards kept their frontage roads. Thanks to Greer, Texas now has 4,500 miles of frontage roads along its Interstate highways and freeways.

Also, a Texan played the leading role in one of the Interstate system’s most visible and permanent decisions, the design of the Interstate highway shield. Richard Oliver, a senior traffic engineer in the Maintenance and Operations Division of the TxDOT, submitted the winning design, which was chosen from more than 100 submitted from all over the country.

Thumbing through a dictionary looking for examples of other route markers, Oliver decided on the shield, seeing it as a symbol

How things have changed: In 1960, I-43 ramps led to an Art Deco Houston city hall, seen in the center-left of this photo. of federal authority and knowing that shape could easily be fit into a square for manufacture. Although he wanted to use red, white, and blue, Oliver submitted his original design in black and white, believing that color would not be authorized. The first prototype was created by a colleague, Clark Foster, and in 1957, Greer notified Oliver that his design would be used nationwide, in the colors he had chosen.

The Texas Department of Transportation also remembers other native Texas titans of the system, including Thomas McDonald, who helped establish the Texas Transportation Institute, and more importantly, served as chief of the Bureau of Public Roads from 1919 to 1953, and oversaw the early years of national highway planning which led to the Interstate highway system; and Frank Turner, known by transportation professionals as the “Father of the Interstate Highway System,” who was the first director of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, which later became the Federal Highway Administration. His name lives on in FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Va. More recently, Texas-born Ray Barnhart combined political skills with a career-long transportation interest to significantly affect our national transportation system. In 1981, President Reagan nominated Barnhart as the Federal Highway Administrator, and he served from 1981 to 1987. Barnhart insisted that transportation policy be based upon engineering and economic principles. Under his stewardship, Congress agreed to increase motor fuel taxes. He established the federal/state technology transfer center program, fought to preserve the sanctity of the Highway Trust Fund, insisted on returning decision-making power to the states, and initiated the nationwide effort to stop the theft of fuel taxes. As a private citizen, Barnhart continues to identify and advocate solutions to transportation issues.

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Current and future Texas projects include the ongoing I-10 “Katy Freeway” widening in the Houston area. This $1.4 billion project is expected to end in 2009 and involves the total reconstruction of 23 miles of urban Interstate, reconstruction of two freeway-to-freeway interchanges, and 23 grade-separated interchanges, all under extremely heavy traffic in suburban conditions. The project will add HOV and variable-priced toll lanes.

Completed in December 2005, the Dallas High Five Project was begun in January 2002, and is the largest freeway interchange in Texas. The five-level interchange unites U.S. 75 (North Central Expressway) and I-635 (L.B.J. Freeway).

And the Trans-Texas Corridor (discussed in the Tollways article) is a proposed multi-use, statewide network of transportation routes in Texas that will incorporate existing and new highways, railways, and utility right-of-ways. As envisioned, each route will include separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large trucks; freight railways; high-speed commuter railways; infrastructure for utilities including water lines and oil and gas pipelines; and transmission lines for electricity, broadband, and other telecommunications services. Plans call for the TTC to be completed in phases over the next 50 years, with routes prioritized according to Texas’ transportation needs. The TxDOT will oversee planning, construction, and ongoing maintenance, although private vendors will be responsible for much of the daily operations. Specific routes for the TTC have not been determined.

VIRGINIA: Wilson Bridge, Beltway Projects Under Way In 1959, the Virginia Department of Highways opened the commonwealth’s first section of Interstate, the 4.87-mile I-95 bypass of Emporia. This also constituted Virginia’s first section under contract.

Before then, the Shirley Highway (Va. 350) was the only limited-access highway in Virginia to open before 1956. Built as a four-lane limited-access freeway, its entire 17 miles between just north of Woodbridge and the 14th Street Potomac River bridge was fully completed in 1952. Segments of connecting Va. 27 (Washington Boulevard) and Va. 110 also qualify.

The George Washington Parkway and Mount Vernon Highway were complete before 1956, and they are on limitedaccess rights-of-way, and have four or more lanes, but some sections are undivided and there are a few at-grade intersections.

Virginia’s first circumferential highway is the famous Capital Beltway, I-495, which was under construction in 1956; by 1964, the 64-mile highway’s circumference through Virginia and Maryland had been completed around Washington, D.C. It was the first major Interstate route to be completed fully, and it opened on April 2, 1964.

George P. Coleman was Virginia’s commissioner of highways from 1913-1922, and he took a national lead in organizing the federal highway system, the Virginia Department of Transportation observes. He was also a chief organizer of AASHO (later AASHTO). Henry G. Shirley (who would later become the agency’s third commissioner) was elected as the group’s first president, and Coleman was the second president.

Setting a national precedent in reducing congestion and supporting mass transit, lanes were reserved for express buses on I-95 (now I-395) in Northern Virginia in 1969. Two years later, lanes were expanded to include four-person carpools – one of the nation’s first uses of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes.

South of Richmond, the I-295 Varina-Enon Bridge at Dutch Gap was opened to traffic in July 1990, and is a cable-stayed bridge, which allows for a longer span supported by high-tension wires in the center of the span. It was the first-ever cablestayed bridge that used precast concrete delta frames to connect the twin box girders. It crosses the James River, with its ship channel that leads to the Richmond Marine Terminal. The overall bridge length is 4,680 feet.

Virginia notes that I-66 represents the first multimodal highway in Virginia for commuter traffic, integrating Metrorail and vehicle travel. It was the first major Interstate segment to be constructed under the Environmental Protection Act of 1969. The restrictions imposed by that act changed forever the way designers, right-of-way agents, and contractors would conduct the business of building highways.

The existing Woodrow Wilson Bridge, carrying I-95 and I495 traffic across the Potomac River, was opened in 1961.

Designed then for 75,000 vehicles per day, it now carries 195,000, and the bridge structure is showing its age. The Virginia, Maryland, and U.S. transportation agencies are administering the construction of a new bridge with 12 lanes, twice the number on the current structure, as well as large interchanges. The total cost of multiple contracts will be approximately $2.5 billion. Construction began in March 2003, and the project, including the bridge and all interchanges, is expected to be complete in 2011.

The massive Capital Beltway interchange in Springfield, south of Washington, D.C., carries 430,000 vehicles per day from I-95, I-395, and I-495. It is being rebuilt to carry this heavy traffic more efficiently and safely, requiring 50 bridges and, in one location, 24 lanes. A 2007 completion is forecast.

The VDOT is focusing on system operations and moving vehicles more efficiently on the current infrastructure. The agency recently instituted 511 alerts where motorists subscribe to receive notification via text messages or e-mail when there is an incident on their normal travel route. In northern Virginia, high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes are being proposed as a way to alleviate congestion. Increased funding for rail and transit are also anticipated.

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Guest Editorial

Interstate System Much More than Transporation

By Doug Pitcock

Back in the late 1950s, when the construction of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways was begun, contractors blazed new trails across prairies and mountains and streams, beginning the greatest construction project known in my lifetime.

We all knew what the Interstate system was going to do for our mobility in urban areas, and the time it would save going cross country from point A to point B. What we did not know in the late 1950s was what it would do for the economy of the country.

The 1960s were known as the "soaring ‘60s." No one quite realized at that time the role the construction of the Interstate system was playing in driving the economy.

The jobs provided, the equipment manufactured, the steel and cement being used was obvious. But what was not apparent was the creation of wealth that the construction of the Interstate system provided – not from the economic impact of the materials, labor, and equipment in building the system, but in the resulting development that no one could have anticipated at the time.

We watched suburbia created. As the new highway system was built, we had new subdivisions with single-family dwellings, multiple-family dwellings, office parks, shopping centers, and whole self-contained mini-cities created.

We watched land values, which may have been at a few thousand dollars an acre prior to the

Interstate system, change to $3, $5, $7, $15, $20 per square foot and up after the construction of the system, as development occurred.

Nothing has had more economic impact in America during my lifetime than the construction of the Interstate highway system.

This economic impact continues, though to a somewhat lesser extent. But it’s still very significant, as we continue to improve and increase the capacity of our highway system in this country.

As we consider the construction of new highways, we should not fail to recognize the impact on the economy that the attendant development provides.

No one has ever attempted to quantify this economic impact, but it is so obvious that sometimes we do not recognize it for what it is.

In 1984, as president of the Associated General Contractors of America, I made speeches that carried the message that construction was a path to permanent prosperity by virtue of the economic impact of an adequate infrastructure program.

Some 22 years later, I feel even more strongly that is the case.

James D. (Doug) Pitcock, Jr., P.E. is chairman and CEO of Williams Brothers Construction Company, Inc., Houston. In 2004, Pitcock was honored by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) as one of America’s Top 100 Private Sector Transportation Design & Construction Professionals of the 20th Century.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the Heartland

The

INTERSTATES in the

HEARTLAND

By Tom Kuennen Midwest, near-West states lead in system starts and technology

ILLINOIS DOT PHOTO

Travelers in America’s Heartland rode on rivers and rails until the Good Roads Era, but it wasn’t until the coming of the Interstates that the distances between its farms and cities were tamed. Here’s how America’s Midwest and near-West states built their Interstates for now and the future, compiled from American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) state DOT questionnaires distributed exclusively for this publication early in 2006.

ILLINOIS: AASHO Road Test Set Interstate Pavement Designs Illinois made a major contribution to the Interstate program, as the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO, predecessor to AASHTO) Test Road Site was the largest pavement research project in history, and was conducted near Ottawa, Ill. Construction of the site, later to become I-80, began immediately after the 1956 act was signed, and lasted from August 1956 to September 1958. The actual test traffic took place from October 1958 through November 1960, and studies continued into 1961.

This federal test road site examined the various types of surfaces that could be used for Interstate road construction, and the materials’ capability to withstand the elements and wear and tear due to motorists’ use. This was a major contribution to construction material being used to build the Interstate system.

Illinois’ first Interstate section was apparently that portion of the Calumet Expressway (I-94) from Sibley to the Kingery Expressway (I-80/94), and the Kingery Expressway from the Calumet Expressway to the Indiana line, built in 1950 by the Illinois

Upgrade 74 in the Peoria area is the largest highway construction project in Illinois history outside the Chicago area, and is near completion in May 2006. At a cost of nearly $460 million, Upgrade 74 will provide new overpasses, all-new pavement, and safer entrance and exit ramps on I-74 there, including the complete rehabilitation of the Murray Baker Bridge over the Illinois River, shown here in 2005.

Department of Public Works & Buildings. Interstate numbers were assigned after the signing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Federal and state governments coordinated efforts to complete certain routes first; work was progressing on nearly every route in the state. Sections of future Interstates were under construction early on from Marion to Dongola, around Effingham, between

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA PHOTO

Interstates in the Heartland

Champaign and Danville, in and around Chicago, in Will and DuPage Counties, near East St. Louis, and in Peoria. Today, the Illinois Department of Transportation feels it was most likely I-70 that was the first contract signed under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act. The first truly urban segment of Interstate was the Eisenhower Expressway, I-290 in Chicago, but the first circumferential Interstate in Illinois was I-270 in the eastern St. Louis metro area.

The Poplar Street Bridge approach system carrying I-55, 64, and 70 across the Mississippi River at downtown St. Louis is a complex composed of 16 elevated roadways and ramps that carry traffic to and from the east end of the Poplar Street Bridge. This complex is one of the largest interchanges in Illinois and was recently retrofitted for seismic loads.

The upgrade of I-74 is one of the largest “downstate” construction projects in the history of Illinois. The upgrade includes the construction of new overpasses, all new pavement, and safer entrance and exit ramps. Construction is scheduled to be completed by December 2006. This project has earned numerous awards, including one from AASHTO. In the meantime, on Chicago’s South Side, the Dan Ryan Expressway’s (I-90/I-94’s) pavement and local access roads are falling apart. The Dan Ryan has surpassed its original design life by more than 20 years. The ongoing Dan Ryan reconstruction will add local lanes, install collector sewers, add a northbound entrance ramp connecting to express lanes, and relocate the Chicago Skyway’s southbound two-lane exit.

A new Mississippi River crossing and the I-70 connector to the bridge at downtown St. Louis are in the planning and design phases, in cooperation with the Missouri DOT (the financing of this project is discussed in the article on tollways).

IDOT has had incident-management programs in place in both the Chicago and East St. Louis areas for several decades; in addition, the department is in the planning phase for a statewide intelligent transportation system.

INDIANA: ‘Crossroads of America’ Shows Why The first section of Interstate completed and opened to traffic with funding from the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 by the State Highway Department of Indiana was I-65 from a temporary connection with U.S. 52 near Royalton northwest of Indianapolis, to U.S. 52 northwest of Lebanon, a distance of 13.4 miles. This 13.4-mile section of I-65 opened to traffic in December 1960, although 8.6 miles from S.R. 267 to U.S. 52 northwest of Lebanon were completed in 1959.

However, it should be noted that an additional 3.5-mile segment of the Tri-State Highway (now I-80/94, the Borman Expressway) from Burr Street to S.R. 53 (Broadway) opened to traffic one month earlier in November 1960, but it was not funded with the 1956 Interstate funds.

The interchange of I-74 and I-465 in Indiana nears completion in 1963.

S.R. 420, the Tri-State Highway – then a four-lane divided freeway – was opened to traffic from the Illinois line to Indianapolis Boulevard (U.S. 41/S.R. 152) in 1952, a distance of only 2.4 miles.

In August 1956 (after the signing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956), the next four miles of S.R. 420 opened to traffic from Indianapolis Boulevard to Burr Street This northwest Indiana freeway now is designated I-80/94, the Borman Expressway.

Separately, the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road opened to traffic in four phases between August and November 1956. The toll road later was incorporated into the Interstate system.

The first Interstate contract awarded by the predecessor of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) was on Feb. 14, 1958, for the construction of the northbound lanes of I-65 from the south end of the U.S. 52 Lebanon Bypass to the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge north of S.R. 39 at Lebanon, a distance of 2.4 miles.

I-465, the circumferential Interstate at Indianapolis, opened to traffic in segments between 1961 and 1970, with the West Leg opening to traffic first. The first segment opened to traffic on Sept.

26, 1961.

Thousands of dedicated employees of the State Highway Department of Indiana/Indiana State Highway Commission – as well as the consulting engineering community and road construction companies – all played an outstanding role in constructing the Interstate system in Indiana, INDOT reports.

This dedication, coupled with an innovative financing program in the mid-1970s – the Accelerated Construction of Interstates Program, in which Indiana paid the full costs of construction of its remaining mainline Interstates ($50 million) and was later reimbursed by the federal government for its share – allowed for the completion of Indiana’s mainline Interstates in 1976, well before many other states, with the final segments of Interstate 65 and Interstate 70 opening to traffic on Oct. 15, 1976.

While most of Indiana is relatively flat, engineers designed I-64 in the hilly portions of southern Indiana to conform to

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the Heartland

existing topography, resulting in a beautiful drive that surprises many motorists who think of Indiana as flat.

The Hoosier State has great plans for improving its National Highway System segments, including the Interstate system. Many projects are currently in the environmental and design phases, including new I-69 from Evansville to Indianapolis, two new bridges over the Ohio River at Louisville, and the associated improvements to I-65 and I-265. These improvements will enhance and solidify Indiana’s position as “The Crossroads of America,” its state motto.

In addition to these projects, the Indiana DOT has programmed approximately $2.5 billion in “Added Travel Lanes” projects on its existing Interstate system, plus additional projects identified in the INDOT Long Range Transportation Plan. INDOT also plans to invest approximately $70 million in Intelligent Transportation Systems devices on and near the Interstate system over the next 10 years, including full Advanced Traffic Management Systems in northwest Indiana (essentially complete), the Indianapolis area, and southern Indiana near Louisville, as well as a system of closed-circuit TV cameras and dynamic message signs on its heavily traveled rural Interstates, namely I-65, I-69, I-70, and I-94.

IOWA: Hawkeyes Lead in Engineering Expertise On Sept. 21, 1958, the first section of Interstate in Iowa opened to traffic, a section of I-35/I-80 from the Douglas Avenue interchange in Polk County south to the Iowa 92 interchange in Warren County. But it was the culmination of decades of engineering progress undertaken by residents of the Hawkeye State that benefited highway users all across America.

Among them was Thomas H. MacDonald. A Texas native, he joined the Iowa State Highway Commission in 1904 and served as its first chief engineer. In 1919, he received an appointment as chief of the federal Bureau of Public Roads, a position he held for 34 years. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, MacDonald helped launch the Interstate highway system and nurtured the project through its early years until his retirement.

James “Jimmy” Whitmore Johnson, lab chief of the Iowa Highway Commission, and two other commission employees, Rudy Schroeder and Willis Elbert, were responsible for inventing the slipform paver and slipform paving method. The first prototype was built and tested in 1947. The slipform paver revolutionized the method of placing portland cement concrete pavement. The procedure laid highway pavements without the need for forms to support the vertical sides of the concrete. Used nationally, the slipform paver provided for the expeditious construction of the U.S. Interstate system.

And Frank B. Francois, an Iowan and 1956 engineering graduate of Iowa State University’s College of Engineering, was awarded the Marston Medal by his alma mater. He served for many years at the U.S. Department of Transportation, as former commissioner of Kitsap County, Wash., and as executive director of AASHTO for 18

years, retiring in 1999. He initiated the AASHTO resolution that allowed states to use federal funds to buy Superpave equipment, and thus accelerated Superpave implementation. He helped create the SHRP Lead States teams, which are considered a model for future technology transfer efforts. In his honor, AASHTO bestows a $10,000 graduate fellowship to be conferred by a state department of transportation that has implemented an outstanding innovative program. Winners are picked by AASHTO’s Standing Committee on Quality; the award is named the Francis B. Francois Award for Innovation.

In 1957, the Des Moines City Council voted 5-0 in support of its 14-mile I-235 freeway plan. In April of that same year, the Federal Bureau of Public Roads provided the Iowa State Highway Commission with final approval for construction of the freeway. The first section of roadway was opened to traffic on Dec. 14, 1961; and the final section on Oct. 30, 1968. Originally, the project was to be completed in 1972. However, in 1963 the Iowa State Highway Commission announced it planned to complete the freeway in 1968, four years ahead of schedule.

Iowa claims a number of Interstate “firsts,” including • Aluminum I-Beam Bridge (1958). The world’s first weldedaluminum, girder-type highway bridge was built over I-35/80 northwest of the city of Des Moines. This aluminum bridge was built due to a delay in receiving steel.

• Polyurethane Pavement Joints (1964). The use of polyurethane joints for pavement was developed in Iowa, originally for bridge approaches. The Iowa Highway Commission worked jointly with Phelan (Midwest Manufacturing Co., Burlington, Iowa) in development of this method.

• Full-Depth, Hot-Mix Asphalt for Interstate (1962). A section of I-80 east of Iowa City in Cedar County built in 1962 is thought to be the first section of Interstate designed with hot-mix asphalt as the full depth of the pavement structure, placed directly on the soil subgrade. The section continues to perform very well as a part of I-80 and received a Perpetual Pavement Award in 2002 from the Asphalt Pavement Alliance.

• Continuous Reinforced Paving/No Transverse Bars (1966).

This method pioneered the development of machinery to place reinforcing steel without chairs (cross frames) to support it. The method eliminated a great amount of hand labor and saved time in paving Interstate highways.

• Two twin suspension bridges crossing the Mississippi River from Moline, Ill., to Bettendorf, Iowa, were converted from toll to free-travel facilities, retrofitted, and subsequently included in the I-74 Interstate system (1971). While it was impossible for the existing structures to meet Interstate design standards even after the modifications were made, the bridges were allowed into the Interstate system under a significant design exception.

• I-380 Cedar River Combination Bridge and Dam in Cedar Rapids. The structure that carries I-380 over the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids combined several existing structures that were in conflict with the crossing location.

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KANSAS: First Segment Completed Under 1956 Act

Top: The I-70 westbound viaduct over the Kansas River between Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., nears completion in November 1962. Above: I-64 is constructed west of Grayson, Carter County, Ky., in 1967.

Designed by Howard, Needles, Tammen, and Bergendoff of Kansas City, Mo., the structure carries I-380 northbound and I-380 southbound on the top level, two city streets at midlevel, and has a flood-control dam in its base. This structure, which has become known simply as the “5-in-1,” was awarded an Engineering Excellence Award by the Consulting Engineers Council in 1978.

The Interstate system in Iowa is reaching a critical juncture, Iowa DOT reports. Much of the pavement is approaching the end of its useful life, and the volume of traffic is such that lanes cannot be closed for repair without significantly affecting travel. In addition, the growth of traffic in many rural, and especially metropolitan, areas is resulting in near-capacity operations.

With a native son like Ike – after whom the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways is named – the state of Kansas is proud to hold the distinction of having the first segment of Interstate highway in the United States completed under the provisions of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. This portion of I-70 was an eight-mile section between Valencia and Maple Hill Roads in Shawnee and Wabaunsee Counties, just west of Topeka, and was opened to traffic by the State Highway Commission of Kansas on Nov. 14, 1956.

At the time the entire stretch of I-70 was finished in Kansas in June 1970, it constituted the longest continuous segment of Interstate highway to be completed by any one state in the nation, and made Kansas one of only three states to have I-70 multi-lane traffic from border to border (the other states were Missouri and Pennsylvania). In Kansas, I-70 is 474 miles long, border-to-border.

Kansas’ first urban Interstate segment was on I-35 in Kansas City (Johnson County), and was completed in November 1959.

The full route of I-470 (6.7 miles) in Topeka, Shawnee County, was completed in October 1960, and constitutes Kansas’ first circumferential highway.

Kansan Dwight D. Eisenhower had a tremendous impact on our transportation system as we know it today, reports the Kansas Department of Transportation. He saw firsthand the importance of good roadways numerous times, from his Transcontinental Motor Convoy of 1919 to his experiences on the Autobahns in Germany during World War II. President Eisenhower’s dedication and perseverance for improved roadways throughout the United States helped to shape the country and that is why the Interstate system bears his name.

In 1964, engineers from Europe made a number of trips to Kansas to watch construction on the world’s largest asphalt project on I-70, when the section from Salina west to Wilson was under way. Six asphalt plants turned out 1,650 tons of hot mix asphalt per hour. Another item of interest on this project was an innovation

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FHWA PHOTOS

Both of these issues are forcing an evaluation of the Interstate system’s ability to meet existing and future demands. This evaluation will have to consider work-zone management, congestion management, utilization of intelligent transportation systems for operational improvements, and multimodal solutions. Future improvement needs will far exceed available revenues, requiring an examination of alternative financing options and revenue enhancement.

Iowa was one of the initial states to deploy a 511 travel information system. The Iowa DOT is deploying ITS in the cities of Des Moines, Iowa City, and Council Bluffs to aid with issues involved with the reconstruction of the Interstate system. In high-traffic areas, the focus will be on congestion and incident management.

In areas of lower-traffic issues, ITS will be targeted for travel-information concerns.

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the Heartland

called an “automatic grade line guide,” a form of a string line, developed by a former highway commission engineer in Kansas, allowing the contractor to build a smoother roadway faster, resulting in overall savings to the state and the traveling public. Contractors still use an enhanced version of this procedure today on paving projects across the state.

Kansas was one of the first states to use post-tensioning on concrete slab bridges on Interstates. The KDOT started constructing post-tensioned haunched slabs on the Interstate system in 2002, and this year has three post-tensioned slabs on I-70, one in Shawnee County and two in Wabaunsee County. Post-tensioning pre-compresses the slab concrete both longitudinally and transversely, allowing a designer to extend the maximum span length about 45 percent, from 64 feet to 92 feet.

The Kansas Department of Transportation has put together an aggressive plan to preserve I-70, a plan that’s nearly complete today. Over the last decade, KDOT has spent approximately $625 million to rebuild or rehabilitate KDOT’s portion of I-70.

KDOT is proud to have rebuilt and rehabilitated I-70 when necessary rather than just resurfacing for a smooth, temporary fix. KDOT is now approaching the completion of the rebuilding of I-70 with a 6.5-mile project to be let in summer.

The largest project in KDOT’s history was let to construction in August 2005 at an estimated $122 million. The project in Johnson County (suburban Kansas City) will involve construction of a new interchange at I-435 and Antioch Road, widening 2.5 miles of I-435 from six to eight lanes between Metcalf Avenue and U.S. 69 with auxiliary lanes between interchanges, partial reconstruction of the U.S 69/103rd Street interchange, and construction of noise walls. These freeway corridors and the surrounding interchanges operate beyond the capacity for which they were designed, causing significant motorist delays and congestion. The desired results are fewer delays, safer roads, and faster travel times.

Kansas expects that its primary mode of travel will remain cars, and Kansas values its Interstates as assets that must be maintained, with capacity improvements made as needs arise and resources are available. However, KDOT says the major transformation for Interstate travel will occur as a result of technology to enhance interaction between the vehicle and the roadway, including vehicle guidance systems, run-off-the-road warning systems, traffic management systems that alert motorists of accidents and congestion and direct to alternate routes, and locationbased devices such as GPS to reduce driver confusion and maximize attention.

KENTUCKY: Green Parkways Supplement Interstate System The first section of Interstate in the Commonwealth of Kentucky – as executed by the then-Kentucky Department of Highways – was from the Henry Watterson Expressway (I-264 inner beltway) in Louisville, south to U.S. 62 in Elizabethtown, now I-65, the Kentucky Turnpike.

The Kentucky Turnpike was a 39-mile highway between Elizabethtown and the Watterson Expressway. Ground was broken on the turnpike on July 25, 1954, and it opened to traffic on Aug. 1, 1956. Tolls were removed on June 30, 1975, some 19 years ahead of schedule, at which time the turnpike became part of I-65, which already connected to the northern and southern ends of the highway.

That same Watterson Expressway was in existence as a limited-access highway prior to the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, and also was the commonwealth’s first urban segment and first circumferential highway.

In the meantime, the Kentucky Turnpike Authority, a commonwealth agency, constructed Kentucky’s handsome, scenic parkway system of nine highways. Built

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA PHOTO

Interstates in the Heartland during the 1960s and 1970s, there are over 650 miles of freewaygrade highways.

Kentucky’s Clay Ferry Bridge is a memorable structure, where I75 crosses the Kentucky River near the community of Clay’s Ferry.

Though from I-75 the bridge appears to be one structure, the bridge is actually the combination of three different structures. The first part of the current structure was completed as part of U.S. 25 in August 1946. When the bridge opened, it was the seventh-highest bridge in the United States.

A parallel structure opened in 1963 when the road became part of I-75. From 1993 to 1998, a third structure was completed between the two existing bridges. This combined the two parallel bridges into one six-lane structure as part of the effort to widen I75 to at least six lanes through the entire state.

Coming projects for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet include the future I-66 as a new freeway from Wickliffe to Paducah; then following I-24, the Western Kentucky and Natcher parkways, I65, the Louie B. Nunn Parkway; then construction of a new freeway parallel to Ky. 80 and the Hal Rogers Parkway. The proposed roadway will cross the state line near Phelps.

An ongoing project is the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project, which addresses the long-term cross-river transportation in the region. The project includes a new downtown bridge just east of the Kennedy Bridge (I-65); an east end bridge about eight miles from downtown, connecting the Gene Snyder Freeway (Ky. 841) to the Lee Hamilton Highway (I-265); and a rebuild to the south of the Kennedy Interchange where I-64, I-65, and I-71 converge in downtown Louisville. The project is now in the design phase.

Also, different options for replacing or repairing the Brent Spence Bridge, which carries I-75 and I-71 over the Ohio River, are currently under review. Roadway improvements, including associated approaches and interchanges, are estimated to cost $750 million.

MICHIGAN: Early Expressways Predated Interstate System It seems to reason that Michigan – home to the Motor City – would already be building limited-access highways prior to the Interstate system. Prior to the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956, the Michigan Department of State Highways already had constructed 89 miles of future Interstate, all open to traffic by then.

These included the Willow Run Expressway, the Detroit Industrial Expressway, part of the Edsel Ford Expressway, and the Jackson, Ann Arbor, and Ypsilanti bypasses, all of which became part of I-94. Part of the Detroit to Toledo Expressway became part of I-75. The oldest segment incorporated into the system was the 8.7-mile-long Willow Run Expressway, opened to traffic in September 1942.

And some 54 miles of future Interstate were all under construction prior to the passage of the 1956 act, including part of the U.S.

12 Expressway (between Kalamazoo and Galesburg), later part of I94; part of the U.S. 2 Expressway, the Mackinac Bridge and its approaches, part of the Fenton to Clio Expressway, and an additional 5.5 miles of the Detroit to Toledo Freeway, all to become part of I-75. And two parts of the U.S. 16 Expressway (Coopersville to Marne and Portland to Lansing) would become part of I-96.

The Michigan DOT reports it had a number of other expressways already constructed and open to traffic in 1956 that were not absorbed into the Interstate system.

Michigan’s first section of the Interstate system constructed with Interstate funding was a 4-mile segment of the 22-mile-long Brighton to Farmington Expressway, which was completed in 1957 from U.S. 23 on the east side of Brighton to east of Farmington. The shields bearing the I-96 insignia were not erected until 1959.

In Michigan, the interchange of I-75, the Walter Chrysler Freeway (right), with I-94, the Edsel Ford Freeway (top to bottom), nears completion in June 1964.

Michigan was intimately involved in the Good Roads movement. Horatio S. Earle was the driving force behind the creation of the Michigan Department of Transportation (the Michigan Highway Department back then), and was the first director of the department. In 1903, two years before the Michigan Highway Department was formed, he proposed a national system of good roads connecting all of the state capitals to each other and to the national capital in Washington, D.C. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), another organization he founded, credits that proposal as the first expression of what is today the Interstate highway system.

In addition, the 1939-40 General Motors “Futurama” pavilion at the New York World’s Fair – designed by futurist Norman Bel Geddes – presented in model form the vision of 100-mph intercity auto travel uninterrupted by stop lights. This exhibit is credited as inspiring the Interstate system in the Federal Highway Act of 1944;

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A rendering of the proposed new Mississippi River crossing on I-70 from Illinois (left) to Missouri at downtown St. Louis. The massive bridge project needs a funding compromise between the two state DOTs. however, funding for construction of the system would not be included until the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956.

The Mackinac Bridge (I-75) connecting Upper and Lower Michigan still is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. The three pedestrian plazas on I-696 are often credited as being an early example of the principles of context sensitivity.

The I-94/Mich. 10 interchange in Detroit was the first freeway-to-freeway interchange in the country to feature left-hand exits and entrances. Grand Rapids was the first city to have an Interstate-to-Interstate interchange within its boundaries (I-96 and I-196).

In 2006 the Michigan DOT will begin work on the “Gateway Project,” which will improve the connection between the Interstate system and the Ambassador Bridge to Canada in downtown Detroit. The project includes the reconstruction of the I-75/I-96 interchange, an expanded bridge plaza, and a new pedestrian walkway over the expressway.

In the meantime, during the next five years, MDOT will replace or rehabilitate 302 bridges on the Interstate system, reconstruct or resurface 305.2 miles of Interstate highway, and will refurbish or reconstruct 21 rest areas on the Interstate system. Capacity improvements are currently planned for portions of I-94 in Detroit and I-75 in Oakland County. In addition, Congress has authorized the construction of a new I-73, and Michigan is part of that proposed routing. But for now, Michigan’s focus is on managing and maintaining the existing Interstate network, and there are no active plans in Michigan to add I-73 at this time.

With the full buildout of the Interstate complete, the MDOT’s focus now shifts to the operations and management of these facilities, and working to continue to integrate the operations of the Interstate system with the surface arterial street network, including ITS technologies.

The first segment of Interstate completed by the old Minnesota Department of Highways was I-35 between Owatonna and Medford; likewise, the first segment under contract was I-35 at Owatonna. The first urban segments in that state were I-35 in Minneapolis, Richfield, and Bloomington, while Minnesota’s first circumferential highways were I-494 and I-694, forming the Interstate ring around the Twin Cities metro area.

In 1978, completion of I-90 in Minnesota also completed that route between Boston and Seattle, reports the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The celebration occurred in Blue Earth, Minn., on Sept 23, 1978, and was inspired by the “Golden Spike” used in Utah to link the first transcontinental railroad. The event featured placing gold-colored concrete panels to mark the place where the freeway was joined from west to east.

In the fall of 1992, the Mn/DOT completed extension of I-35 through downtown Duluth. The project created strong controversy among citizens, business leaders, environmentalists, preservationists, and others. Because of the intense scrutiny, the freeway design used a “cut and cover” tunnel that provided a scenic, landscaped connection between the downtown area and the shore of Lake Superior. Because the freeway reduced congestion in Duluth, and due to the pleasing aesthetics of the park-like cover and the landscaping and beautification done in concert with the project, I-35 in the downtown area earned acceptance and praise from its supporters as well as many former detractors.

The Minnesota Road Research project, incorporating a 3.5-mile section of I-94 as a testing ground for various pavement designs, was completed in 1994 by the Mn/DOT and several partners. In addition to its active segment on I-94, the research facility also includes a 2-mile loop to test pavements such as those used on low-volume roads. The facility uses thousands of sensors to measure factors such as temperature, ground frost levels, and pavement performance.

The I-94 segment contains 52 test cells using different pavement designs and materials to measure their behavior and durability in the state with its extremes of temperatures and other weather conditions. Since its inception, the Mn/ROAD facility has shared test data with scores of other states and nations in cold-weather climates to help them improve the strength and durability of pavements they use.

In the Twin Cities metro area, the Mn/DOT built Interstate-394, a 10-mile section of freeway linking Minneapolis with its western suburbs. The design features a two-lane, reversible HOV section reserved for buses, carpools, and motorcycles. In 2005, Mn/DOT opened its first toll lanes on I-394 to allow single-occupant vehicles to use the HOV lanes by paying a fee. Prices for using the HOV vary according to the prevailing level of congestion on the freeway. Fees are paid by drivers using transponders that automatically track their vehicles’ use of the lane and issue a monthly bill.

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MINNESOTA: Leader in Engineering, Environment

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the Heartland

When building the Interstate system, Mn/DOT engineers faced challenges with building in areas that contained vast deposits of muck, with fragile limestone deposits, and with building tunnels and bridges in the heavily urbanized Twin Cities metro area. In the Twin Cities area, builders installed a refrigeration system to strengthen the soil near a church and other buildings to tunnel in Minneapolis’ historic Lowry Hill area.

Current and future projects include the elimination of several freeway bottlenecks in the Twin Cities area, such as the interchange of I35E and I-694 in the region’s suburbs. A new bridge now under construction will carry I-494 over the Mississippi River.

The Mn/DOT established the face of future traffic management when it opened its Regional Transportation Management Center in 2003. The RTMC coordinates several methodologies. They include traffic-management techniques such as video monitor tracking, loop detectors, and electronic signs advising motorists about crashes, detours, and other traffic conditions. Similar systems are also in use or under development in cities such as St. Cloud, Rochester, and Duluth.

MISSOURI: First Contract Under Interstate Program On Aug. 2, 1956, the Missouri State Highway Commission approved several projects that would be financed using funds from the recently passed Federal-Aid Highway Act. One of the projects was located along U.S. 66 in the northeast corner of Laclede County, to add a lane to Route 66 and convert it to a controlled-access highway, including grading and paving for approximately 21 miles of the future I-44.

On the same day, two contracts were let for segments of the Mark Twain Expressway (U.S. 40), later to be known as I-70, in the St. Louis area. One segment of about two miles was to be built in the City of St. Louis, while another segment of about two miles was to be built in St. Charles.

Prior to the Interstates, U.S. Routes 66 and 40 were controlledaccess highways in certain segments, including the Red Feather

Expressway in the city of St. Louis, now part of I-64. Interstates 270, 435, 470, and 229 are all circumferential Interstates.

Missouri boasts the largest number of major river bridges of any state, with 55.

Missouri’s Rex Whitton was Federal Highway Administrator during the peak of the Interstate program, 1961-66. A photo gallery depicting some of his achievements can be found at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/whitgal.htm.

In 2006, Missouri is in the second year of a major construction boom, thanks to the passage of Amendment 3 in November 2004, which gives the MoDOT a larger portion of existing vehicle sales taxes. It also redirects existing highway taxes and fees that used to go to other state agencies to road and bridge construction.

The MoDOT is using the additional funding to implement its Smoother, Safer, Sooner program, which has three components: Smooth roads, accelerated projects, and new construction. As part of the Smooth Roads Initiative, the MoDOT is working to improve 2,200 miles of the state’s most heavily traveled highways and bring them up to good condition by the end of the year.

In St. Louis and its suburbs, Missouri is undertaking its first design-build project with a 12-mile stretch of I-64 in St. Louis, the largest road construction project in Missouri history. Some of the major projects on the national highway system included in the department’s five-year statewide construction program are a U.S. 40 upgrade to Interstate standards in the St. Louis area, the Paseo Bridge replacement over the Missouri River (I-35/I-29 Design/Build) in the Kansas City area, reconstruction of the U.S. 71/I-435/I-470 interchange in the Kansas City area, 45 miles of U.S. 65 upgrade to dual divided roadway from Branson to Arkansas, from Springfield to Buffalo, and from Cole Camp to Warsaw in southwest Missouri; and 60 miles of Rte. 60 upgrade to dual divided roadway from Willow Springs to Van Buren in south-central Missouri.

The MoDOT has been studying the rural portion of I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis since 1998. An internal feasibility study prompted the need to launch a tiered environmental impact state-

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the Heartland

ment on the 200-mile corridor. The first tier, completed in 2001, determined the need to reconstruct and widen the highway to six lanes (eight in urban areas) to meet the needs of 2030. By that time, traffic is expected to have doubled, with the entire corridor operating in a stop-and-go condition.

The MoDOT, however, does not have funding identified to begin building the project. The plan, though, is not an all-or-nothing proposition and could be implemented in phases. It can also guide other work in the corridor, like the replacement of crossroad bridges or interchange improvements.

The department will soon be using cell phone data to collect information on traffic movement, patterns, and congestion. This state-of-the-art (but anonymous) technology will help keep Missouri motorists better informed about which roads to use and how long the drive will take.

NEBRASKA: Urban Work Gets Green Light in Farm State The first Interstate highway section in Nebraska completed by the Department of Roads and Irrigation – predecessor of today’s Nebraska Department of Roads – was 6.4 miles of I-80 near Gretna in Sarpy County, just southwest of Omaha. It was the agency’s first contract under the system as well.

The first urban segment was on I-80 in Omaha, and the first circumferential Interstate was I-680 around central Omaha.

In Nebraska all mainline Interstate was concrete pavement.

Nebraska is noted for its clean and conveniently located Interstate rest areas, which are considered by some to be the best in the nation.

Today, Nebraska is finishing the first year of work of a fouryear reconstruction phase for rebuilding the I-480/U.S. 75 (28th & Dodge) interchange south of downtown Omaha. This work provides lane balance, eliminates most of the left-side entrance ramp, and rebuilds and removes bridges in the interchange. This interchange was originally configured to accommodate the future West Expressway, which was later abandoned.

Nebraska continues its rebuild of the urban Interstate in Omaha, starting with a10-year reconstruction completed in 1999. This plan included 17 miles of Interstate, two interchanges, and seven service interchanges. Since 1999, the state has extended the urban rebuild to a total of 23 miles and has rebuilt four more service interchanges. The next major step is to expand the rural Interstate to six lanes (or more) in each direction from Omaha to Lincoln, the capital, a total of 44 miles. This work, which started in 2002, is planned to be completed by the end of 2012.

The future of Nebraska highways include improved Intelligent Transportation System resources, cameras, and signs to assist in managing traffic flow. Technology will be the difference in the improved highway system.

NORTH DAKOTA: Badlands Posed Challenge to Builders I-94 (formerly U.S. 10) between the Woodbury interchange for the city of Jamestown and the East Valley City interchange was the first Interstate segment opened by the North Dakota State Highway Department. Work was completed on the 39-mile segment on Nov. 22, 1958. Contracts were let in 1956 for that first segment, making it the first segment under contract, as well as the first opened.

The first urban segment of Interstate in the Peace Garden State was I-194, from I-94 Exit 156 to Memorial Highway, in Mandan, N.D., across the Missouri River from Bismarck, the capital.

In 1964, when I-94 was built across Sweet Briar Creek, it was one of the first projects to utilize the Interstate roadway embankment to function as a dam. The resulting lake provides a recreation area and assists in flood control. The project was a cooperative partnership effort between the North Dakota Water Commission, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, Morton County, and the North Dakota State Highway Department (which, in 1990, became the North Dakota Department of Transportation).

The Badlands scenic area constituted a significant challenge to the development of North Dakota’s Interstate system. The effort to preserve the beauty of the North Dakota Badlands while engineering an Interstate through this natural scenic and historic area was an example of what would now be called context-sensitive engineering.

North Dakota honors Walter Hjelle, state highway department director, and Bob Bradley, chief engineer, both leaders in the effort to complete North Dakota’s portion of the Interstate project. Hjelle served 23 years (from 1961-1981 and again from 1985-1988) as state highway director, longer than any other in North Dakota history, and was responsible for the greatest period of roadway system expansion in the state’s history. He served as an AASHTO regional vice president and on several national committees.

Bradley served as chief engineer from 1957 through 1981, working alongside Hjelle during the formation of North Dakota’s Interstate system and through the greatest period of expansion in the history of the state’s roadway system.

All but a few segments of North Dakota Interstate have been completely rebuilt. ND DOT is focusing on maintaining its Interstate system and improving ride quality through use of preventive maintenance treatments such as milling and overlay, and concrete pavement repair with minor grinding. In the meantime, the state is using ITS for safety enhancements, such as the automated de-icing systems in place on the I-29 Buxton railroad over-crossing north of Hillsboro, and the I-94 Red River bridges between Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn.

OHIO: Buckeyes Tackle Complications of Congestion The first Interstate contracts let by the Ohio Department of Highways were for I-71 north from Columbus in Franklin County, in

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OHIO DOT PHOTO

Interstates in the Heartland

1957. But the oldest Interstate sections precede that, including a 6.5-mile stretch of U.S. 25 north of Dayton in Montgomery County – now I-75 – that was built in 1942. Contracts for parts of future I75 in Hamilton County (Cincinnati area) were sold in 1941, 1942, and 1943. Others include part of I-280 in Lucas County, and part of I-76 in Summit County.

Today’s Ohio Department of Transportation describes I-71 in Columbus – also known as the Columbus Innerbelt, on the east side of downtown – as the first urban Interstate, the contract for which was sold in 1957. Contracts for Ohio’s first circumferential Interstate – I-275 in Hamilton County – were sold in 1958.

The Veterans’ Glass City Skyway Bridge on I-280 in the city of Toledo is the largest single construction project ever undertaken by the ODOT. At a construction cost of $220 million, the bridge will replace the outdated Craig Memorial lift bridge that carries I-280 traffic across the Maumee River into downtown Toledo and has been a source of congestion and traffic-safety problems.

Intended to be a lasting landmark and a new gateway for Toledo and the region, the new bridge has a cable-stayed design consisting of a large center pylon and stainless steel cables radiating down from the pylon that support the bridge deck. The center pylon was designed to light up at night. The entire design gives the bridge a sail-like appearance. The bridge’s decorative themes were chosen by the community to reflect the industrial history of Toledo.

Construction of the new bridge began in 2002 and is expected to be completed by late this year or early 2007.

The I-70/I-71 South Innerbelt corridor in downtown Columbus, the “Downtown Split,” was originally designed to accommodate 125,000 vehicles per day, but now serves 192,000 per day. The ODOT is reviewing plans to improve the corridor and will select a specific approach by this summer.

I-90, and its northern terminus with I-71 and I-77 in downtown Cleveland, is a high-capacity highway facility extending throughout the city. Commonly known as the “Cleveland Innerbelt,” the highways serve as a fundamental component of Cleveland’s commuter routes. The ODOT is studying the most effective approach to renew the infrastructure and increase capacity without undue burden to the public, with the start of the first Innerbelt project expected in fall 2009.

Gov. Bob Taft unveiled the Jobs and Progress Plan for Ohio in 2003. It is the largest transportation initiative in the state since the original creation of the Interstate highway system. The plan devotes $5 billion over the next 10 years toward Ohio’s highway network, rebuilding urban freeways and completing macro-corridors to connect rural regions. The improvements will include widening of highways and interchange improvements to increase capacity. The ODOT typically works on a six-year construction and planning cycle, adding a year of new projects annually. Currently, the department has $3.4 billion and 121 projects under construction or development for FY 2007 to 2012.

In Ohio, 42 percent of freeway crashes occur on 12 percent of the freeway system, and all within urban areas. Urban Freeway

Ohio's Innerbelt Bridge carries I-90 over the Cuyahoga River just south of downtown Cleveland.

Management Systems (FMS) or Intelligent Transportation Systems are a part of how the ODOT is working to manage congestion.

OKLAHOMA: First to Connect Interstate with Adjoining State Oklahoma was active in constructing toll-financed turnpikes prior to the Interstate system. Turner Turnpike, a fully-controlled access toll road, was completed on May 16, 1953, from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, approximately 86 miles. This tollway later was designated I-44.

Also before the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, the first section of Oklahoma Interstate to be built was U.S. 66, from the end of Turner Turnpike in Tulsa, northeast to Skelly Drive, and from there to the Arkansas River Bridge. This approximately 4-mile section later became I-44.

After the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, the first section of Oklahoma Interstate to be built by the Oklahoma Highway Department – and the nation’s first dedication of an Interstate highway connection with an Interstate in an adjoining state – was a portion of I-35 near the Kansas state line. There, 3.99 miles of I-35 linked the Kansas Turnpike to U.S. 177 near Braman in Kay County.

Kansas’ turnpike was completed in 1957 and became part of I35, which spans the north-South length of Oklahoma; but it wasn’t until the next year that Oklahoma’s portion of the highway was completed.

Before this, motorists traveling south would often miss the turnoff (onto a county road) that would take them to U.S. 177.

Many who missed the turn wound up in the wheat fields of Amos Switzer and his wife. It has been estimated that more than 500 vehicles ran off the road and into Switzer’s field, ruining his wheat

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crop and tearing his fence, forcing him to sell his cattle, which, of course, would not stay in a field with no fence.

Oklahoma was fast on Missouri’s heels in early Interstate lettings. Its first let date was Sept. 11, 1956, for I-35 in McClain County at the Canadian River. The state’s first urban segment of Interstate was the I-44 Arkansas River Bridge in Tulsa, December 1951, which since has been replaced.

In 1983, a stretch of I-40 from Oklahoma City to Shawnee was renamed the “Tom Steed Memorial Highway.” Steed, a respected and admired member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years, worked diligently to promote federal programs – including highway programs – which have benefited all citizens. While serving on the House Public Works Committee in 1956, he was instrumental in creating the nationwide Interstate highway system when he helped write the bill authorizing the original $51 billion, 13-year highway program. He was also chairman of the Subcommittee on Appropriations, the most powerful position regarding federal appropriations at the time.

The largest bridge on an Oklahoma Interstate is the I-40 Crosstown in downtown Oklahoma City, measuring more than 8,800 feet in length. The bridge is currently being relocated several blocks south of its current alignment.

Eastern Oklahoma is mountainous, where the plateaus of Arkansas spill across the border. I-35 in southern Oklahoma was built by cutting directly through the Arbuckle Mountains there. Until then, motorists were forced to travel U.S. 77 at reduced speeds along sometimes treacherous hairpin turns through the mountainous terrain. Mountains that were cut away now flaunt their brilliant hues of Oklahoma clay to the delight and awe of the traveler.

Current and future Oklahoma projects include reconstruction of I-44 from the Arkansas River Bridge on the west to Yale Avenue on the east in Tulsa; and the I-40 Crosstown project in downtown Oklahoma City, which will ultimately place I-40 approximately five blocks south of its current alignment, and also provide a new boulevard into downtown along the existing Interstate. Widening of I-35 through Norman also is planned.

Oklahoma has a commitment to reconstruct and rehabilitate most of its rural Interstates, which it has been undertaking over the past three years, and will continue in the coming eight years.

Oklahoma utilizes dynamic message boards on urban Interstates to manage traffic flow to congested corridors.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Taming the Miles, Border to Border A state with intensive pass-through traffic on its Interstates, South Dakota is hard-pressed to generate the revenue needed to construct and maintain highways. That’s why the Coyote State marks the completion of its east-west and north-south Interstates as a major milestone.

The first section of Interstate completed by the then-South Dakota Department of Highways was part of I-29 near Sioux

Falls. This also was the first contract awarded in the program.

I-229 around Sioux Falls was the state’s first urban and circumferential Interstate, reports the South Dakota Department of Transportation.

While its highways are essential for South Dakota’s agricultural and manufacturing economies, they also facilitate tourism.

Total visitor spending for the state of South Dakota totaled $809 million in 2005, continuing a long-term upward trend.

WISCONSIN: Pioneer in Recycled Paving Materials Construction on Wisconsin’s Interstate system by the State Highway Commission of Wisconsin began in 1956, on a 7-mile segment of I-94 in Waukesha County. One of the first contracts documented was to the A.F. Keyes Co. in the amount of $806,398 on Oct. 16, 1956, for work in Waukesha County. The first section of Interstate highway was completed in 1958 – a onemile segment of I-94 near Johnson Creek in Jefferson County.

Existing limited-access highways at this time included U.S. 51 (East Madison Beltline on Stoughton Road); U.S. 12 (South and West Madison Beltline); S.R. 30 (Madison to Milwaukee); and U.S. 41 (Milwaukee to Green Bay). Milwaukee was the site of the first urban Interstate in Wisconsin, I-94 (East-West Freeway) in Milwaukee County.

In December 1956, federal officials denied Wisconsin’s request for a route between Genoa City and Madison, opting for Madison to Janesville instead. Initially, Wisconsin was to have only two major Interstate routes, I-90 and I-94. However, the state convinced the federal government to approve I-43 between Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Beloit.

Wisconsin is a pioneer when it comes to the conservation of natural resources through the recycling and reuse of both concrete and asphalt pavements. This is both an engineering and environmental landmark. Wisconsin also pioneered the use of thin-bonded concrete overlays of concrete pavements.

Ongoing construction includes the $810 million Marquette Interchange project in Milwaukee, to be completed in 2008; work to I-94 between Milwaukee and Kenosha; the possibility of designating U.S. 41 Interstate status; and ongoing work to the southeast Wisconsin freeway system. Currently, there are about 20 major projects in active design or under construction, almost all of them non-Interstate.

Wisconsin’s “Connections 2030” transportation plan will be developed to address long-term, statewide transportation needs for all travel modes, including highways. Per the State Highway Plan 2020, the department has three major emphasis areas: safety, traffic movement, and preservation. Increasing traffic volumes affect highway safety, and the department is committed to reducing crash rates by improved roadway design, enhanced driver education, and targeting enforcement. Traffic movement is enhanced using ITS and highway engineering.

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Guest Editorial

Open-Graded Friction Courses Incorporating Asphalt-Rubber Are the Strong, Silent Type

By Doug Carlson

Open-graded friction courses with asphalt-rubber are finding a place on our nation’s aged concrete highway infrastructure, improving driver safety through ride enhancements and reducing tire noise.

Nothing performs quite like asphalt-rubber. The modern version of asphalt-rubber is 20 percent recycled tire rubber and 80 percent liquid asphalt. Mixed with aggregate, this thick and sticky material can be placed in 1-inch overlays on top of concrete to provide a very durable and favorable driving surface.

This can provide the greatest cost savings compared to other rehabilitation alternatives, such as thicker conventional asphaltic concrete (AC) overlays, diamond grinding, or reconstruction.

Arizona, California, and Texas have been using asphalt-rubber friction courses with success for some time, but now asphalt-rubber pavements have moved well beyond the far West, with placements in Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Ontario, and elsewhere.

Asphalt-rubber pavements have gathered some exceptional long-term performance data. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is experiencing its interesting crackstopping or delaying characteristic in the Pooled Fund Study 519 at its Accelerated Loading Facility. The asphalt-rubber section never cracked, while every other asphalt modifier did so after 300,000 passes.

Here’s why: Each square yard of hot mix has over 1.9 million discrete tire rubber particles scattered throughout the asphalt matrix that flex and do not crack. The cracks have to go around them.

Also, the material provides the engineer with a high binder mix and more “glue” to hold it down and to hold the aggregate.

Open-graded mixes can have binder contents as high as 10 percent by weight of the mix without drain down or runoff or bleeding, flushing, or rutting.

Film thickness on the aggregate can be four times as high as conventional AC materials. The extra binder and solid rubber components help resist hardening from aging, keeping the hot mix soft and pliable even after 15 or more years in the hot Arizona sun. The first project on top of Portland Cement Concrete Pavement (PCCP) was placed in 1988 near Tucson.

Sections on I-17 placed in 1990 were replaced in 2005, more for fixes of the concrete joints underneath.

The crack and seat operation in 1990 in Flagstaff, Ariz., on I-40’s PCCP has performed with very little cracking to this day, and that’s under weather conditions with more rainfall and colder conditions than Seattle, Wash. Many old concrete pavements are still serviceable, just beat up and rough; they are no good on top. Regular asphalt just can’t stick or last long enough to be considered a viable option. But asphalt-rubber can make PCC pavements serviceable once again.

The added durability of asphalt-rubber allows the friction course to last longer while providing the best surface for skid resistance. Engineers are encouraged to use high quality, engineered aggregate to help tires grip the road in inclement weather. A study in San Antonio, Texas, showed that accidents can be reduced when a rough concrete pavement is cost-effectively resurfaced with an asphalt-rubber alternative. The use of a Permeable Friction Course on I-35 reduced the number of wet-weather accidents by over 50 percent, saving the public injury, time, and money. Sooner or later the insurance companies will work with DOTs to help reduce accidents and claims.

Although safety is my biggest concern when I drive my family on a road trip, nothing beats the quiet ride of asphalt-rubber on top of concrete. It is the best of both worlds: a durable, longlasting concrete structure below, and a safe, quiet, and smooth asphalt layer on top. These are some of the quietest driving surfaces measured in the world, and that’s without ever actually being designed to be quiet. I look forward to the results when engineers here actually design an asphalt-rubber friction course to be quiet.

The Quiet Pavement Pilot Program in the Phoenix area of Arizona has provided its 12 million annual visitors with a taste of the technology, and they are taking it home. They are asking the DOT, “Why can’t we do this here?” There is no good “no” answer anymore. With the Internet, the information is at the public’s fingertips.

The technology is not patented or proprietary; anybody can make it; and the costs only reflect a little more work and the added asphalt, rubber, and high quality aggregate in the mix.

Asphalt-rubber is worth it, resulting in quieter pavements and safer streets. Find out how at our Web site, http://www.rubberpavements.org.

Doug Carlson is executive director of the Rubber Pavements Association, Tempe, Ariz.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Interstates in the West

The

INTERSTATES in the

WEST

By Tom Kuennen Across mountains, plains, jungles, and deserts, the Interstate system delivers for residents of the American West

COLORADO DOT PHOTO BY GREGG GARGAN

Flung across mountains and plains, jungles and deserts, and through tunnels and across spans, the Interstate system is serving residents and travelers to America’s far Western states. Western states not only have some of the longest Interstate networks in terms of mileage, but they also are leaders in civil and structural engineering technology. Here’s how America’s far Western states have constructed their Interstates and are building for tomorrow, compiled from American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) state DOT questionnaires distributed exclusively for this publication early in 2006.

ALASKA: Routes Based on World War II Highways Alaska’s Interstate system routes largely are based on facilities that were constructed during World War II – highways A-1, A-2, and A-3, – reports the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

The FHWA’s predecessor – the Bureau of Public Roads – designated Interstate routes in Alaska and Puerto Rico. But unlike the mileage in Hawaii and elsewhere, the mileage in Alaska and Puerto Rico is exempt from meeting Interstate design standards. Alaska’s Interstate highways are designated A-1, A-2, A-3, and A-4, totaling 1,082 miles, and most of the route mileage remains non-divided, opposed traffic, single lane in each direction.

Of these routes, A-2, the Alaska Highway (from the Canadian border), has the most colorful history. Construction of the Alaska Highway began in March 1942, and was completed eight months later. The Alaska Highway’s route was developed by the U.S. War Department, and followed the location of airfields from Edmonton, Alberta, to Fairbanks. The Alaska Highway begins in Dawson Creek, B.C., and heads northwest through the Yukon Territory to Fairbanks.

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The western portals of the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnels carrying I-70 across the Continental Divide in Colorado are seen here. The tunnels were constructed between 1968 and 1979.

The eastbound bore is named after Edwin C. Johnson, a former Colorado governor and U.S. senator who actively supported the Interstate system in the Centennial State.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA PHOTO

Interstates in the West

Its length is 1,520 miles to Fairbanks, and 1,422 miles to Delta Junction at A-1 from Anchorage to the south. The state’s highways largely are located in the more populous southeastern portion of the main part of the state. The George Parks Highway (A-3) from Palmer to Fairbanks – named in July 1975 in honor of George A. Parks (1883-1984), the territorial governor from 1925 to 1933 – was constructed during the 1960s.

Back in the Interstate era, the Alaska Road Commission/Bureau of Public Roads devoted much of its funding to building the George Parks Highway, the Alaska DOT reports.

A-1 and A-3 have sections in the Anchorage Urbanized Area, but no circumferential Interstates exist. Future projects include the Glenn Highway (A-1) to Seward Highway (A-3) connection in Anchorage, and ongoing construction projects that prioritize improving the most hazardous sections of the designated Interstate routes to lower the number of traffic accidents and related fatalities.

Alaska is refining its Road Weather Information System (RWIS) and 511 Travel in the Know systems to improve information access for travelers and snow removal.

ARIZONA: Fast Growth Transforming Interstates The Arizona Highway Department launched a number of Interstate highway projects at the time of the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act. Records and memories indicate the following sections opened close to the same time: I-17 (Black Canyon Freeway) north and south of Thomas Road in Phoenix; I-10 near Ehrenberg (at the Colorado River); and I-40 between Holbrook and Joseph City in northern Arizona.

The first Arizona contract under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act appears to have financed the construction of the Veterans’ Memorial Overpass in Tucson, an I-10 bridge over the local railroad tracks.

There were no limited-access highways in Arizona prior to 1956, reports the Arizona Department of Transportation. Recognizing that Interstates could ultimately bypass various rural communities, the Arizona Highway Commission in 1957 established a policy providing for the construction of the Interstates between towns, primarily along existing state highways, so that traffic still passed through local communities. That policy provided for the construction of bypass segments in the later years of the program.

I-17, also known as the Black Canyon Freeway in Phoenix, is considered the “Granddaddy” of urban Interstates in Arizona. There are no circumferential Interstates in Arizona, but the state is nearing completion of a network of looped freeways (known as Loop 101 and Loop 202) that connect with Phoenix-area Interstates in strategically planned locations.

Arizona’s Interstates take travelers to and through some of the most spectacular scenery in the United States. I-40, stretching more than 355 miles across northern Arizona, is a gateway to destinations such as the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, and Meteor Crater.

The I-10 Deck Park Tunnel was completed in August 1990 and represents the “Final Mile” of I-10 across the country. As a result of

A pier is constructed in 1967 for the I-15 bridge over the Virgin River in Arizona. this project near downtown Phoenix, I-10 was for the first time a continuous highway between Jacksonville, Fla., and Santa Monica, Calif. Some ADOT highway veterans say Arizona also had the firstever section of I-10 in the country, a segment near Ehrenberg along the Colorado River.

Construction of I-15 in the Virgin River Gorge in northwest Arizona was significant. At the time it was built, it was the most expensive highway per mile in the country. There are 300-foot slopes in some areas along the highway. Interestingly, even though I-15 is an Arizona Interstate, there was no access to it in the Grand Canyon State. The entrance and exit ramps were in Nevada and Utah. That situation has since changed with the addition of access points in Arizona.

Population growth is driving future ADOT projects. I-17 will be widened to four lanes, including new carpool lanes, in each direction between the Loop 101 Pima Freeway and Carefree Highway (State Route 74) starting in 2007, at an estimated cost of $200 million.

I-17 in north Phoenix (Peoria Avenue to Bell Road) has just undergone a major facelift with the addition of merge lanes, new sound walls, signage, and other improvements. ADOT is working with local governments to finalize plans to widen I-10 in the

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Interstates in the West

downtown Tucson area (Prince Road to 29th Street) over the next several years, with an estimated cost of $193 million.

Arizona is a leader in the deployment of intelligent transportation systems, providing drivers with important information about crashes and restrictions. These systems will continue to expand in future years. The Phoenix area’s freeway carpool lane system is still growing, providing an incentive for solo drivers to share the ride or board an express bus.

In 2004, Maricopa County voters approved a 20-year funding plan for Phoenix region transportation upgrades, including more lanes on Interstate freeways. Despite funding challenges, there are efforts to accelerate the schedule for certain projects due to concerns about growing traffic demands. Stretches of I-10 west of Phoenix and I-17 as it climbs north out of the Valley of the Sun toward northern Arizona are examples. ADOT is working with the FHWA on plans to add local traffic lanes (collector-distributor lanes) to a busy stretch of I-10 between Phoenix and Tempe, including the busy rush hour location known as the “Broadway Curve.” Efforts also continue to secure adequate funding to add a third lane in each direction to I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson.

CALIFORNIA: Leader in Limited-Access Highways Well before the Interstate system, California was the leader in limited-access freeways.

The California Department of Public Works, Division of Highways had been actively constructing limited-access freeways across the state, including the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road (deeded to California in 1895, the first state highway, now part of U.S. 50); U.S. 40 (later I-80); U.S. 101 (Bayshore Freeway, first unit dedicated June 1, 1951); Calif. 110, the Arroyo Seco Parkway/L.A. 110 (1940, not part of Interstate system, but the first freeway in California); now I-15 in San Diego County, San Diego-Miramar, 1950; now I-80, the Eastshore Freeway, under construction in San Jose, 1953; and the Santa Ana Freeway, portions open in 1949.

The first northern California freeway opened under the Federal Highway Act of 1956 was I-80, opened to traffic on June 24, 1957. I-10 is one of the oldest Interstates, and possibly the first California Interstate project to go to construction with Interstate construction funds under the 1956 act. Prior to the act, units were already being constructed and dedicated, including L.A. 10 units dedicated in 1953 and 1954.

Additionally, I-5, I-8, I-10, I-15, I-40, I-80, I-505, and I-580, were all part of the initial Interstate routes approved for California in 1947, total mileage 1,938 miles. Beltline and circumferential routes were added in 1955, bringing California’s total to 2,135 miles.

Of course, California also was a leader in urban expressways, but which were first? This is difficult to answer for California.

Possibly the first was the Aliso Street Viaduct (later part of I-5) in 1948. The first freeway in California was the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Route 110) in 1940, but this is not officially part of the Interstate Highway System. California began a proactive, incremental process

Snow-clad Mt. Shasta serves as a backdrop to I-5 northbound near Castella in California's Shasta County in 1963. throughout the state of developing limited-access highways to full freeway standards, beginning with the 1939 highway law and continuing through 1956. The freeway system began as short segments that upgraded existing highways.

California was first assigned beltline and circumferential routes in 1955 in the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles areas in 1955.

However, construction and freeway adoptions were occurring before then, including I-105, Santa Ana Freeway; I-110 Harbor Freeway, with first section opened in 1952, last in 1970; I-205 North Tracy Bypass, construction of portions nearing completion in 1948; I-210, 280 Urban Loop added to Interstate system in 1955, with first portions completed 1955; and I-305, redesignated in 1980.

The City of Los Angeles and the Division of Highways both took early leadership roles in the development of freeways and development of high-capacity roads with limited access, and was in the vanguard of resolving issues of ramp design, access control, and how to buy right-of-way prior to the 1956 act, Caltrans reports.

With California’s Urban Loop, I-280, authorized as part of the Interstate system in 1955, and construction completed in 1964, engineers emphasized aesthetics and cooperation in design.

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Additional costs were incurred for split-level design, independent roadways, variable-width medians, broad horizontal curves, maximum grade of 4 percent, and other techniques of aesthetic treatment.

In 1916, District 3 completed work on the Yolo Causeway, which for the first time allowed travel between the state capital and San Francisco during an era when the Sacramento Valley flooded regularly. This causeway, which was part of what was to become I80, was California’s first highway project financed by the sale of highway bonds.

The construction of I-5 in District 3 contains metropolitan areas and small villages, rugged mountains and marshy lowland, regions of extreme cold and regions of subtropical climate, and large rivers and dry washes (that can become raging torrents in a matter of hours). One mile-and-a-half stretch through downtown Sacramento nearly hung up the entire project. Its path followed the nearby Sacramento River, and engineers dubbed it the boat section because it actually sat below the water level. The district found a way to keep the river at bay, so to speak; they sealed it off with pavement 8 feet thick and held tight by pins driven 80 feet into the ground.

In 1953, California built its first four-level direct connector interchange, “The Stack,” where the Hollywood, Santa Ana, Pasadena, and Harbor Freeways came together.

Westside Freeway (1963, now I-5) was, at the time, the longest freeway project on entirely new alignment undertaken by the state, at 321 miles. Also, due to coordination with the California Aqueduct Project, it required close collaboration and development of new engineering technologies with the Department of Water Resources and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation.

COLORADO: Feats of Engineering and Environmental Design Segments of what later became I-25 were constructed almost simultaneously by the old Colorado Department of Highways in Denver (the Valley Highway) and Pueblo beginning in 1948 and 1949, respectively. The first Interstate section completed was the Valley Highway in Denver in November 1958. The 9-mile Pueblo segment was finished about six months later, in July 1959, reports the Colorado Department of Transportation. A segment in Colorado Springs (Monument Valley Freeway) was completed on July 1, 1960.

Additional segments of I-25 were under construction prior to 1956.

No other Interstate segments were started prior to 1956 in Colorado.

Three metro-area freeway construction programs (Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo) were under way in 1956; it is likely that one of the phases in these programs would have technically been the

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Night work is seen on the "T-REX" I-25 southeast Denver corridor reconstruction program, 2001-2006.

And in 1965, on I-10, San Bernardino-Riverside County, highway builders used newly-developed machinery to put down four lanes of concrete between Cabazon and Palm Springs in a single operation, a wider swath than had been done before.

The 1971 Sylmar Earthquake held lessons for California and elsewhere, revealing that many design details commonly used by bridge engineers worldwide were inadequate for a force of this magnitude. Findings triggered a seismic retrofit program, and significant changes immediately were made to California bridge-design standards, which also became the basis for a new national code.

In the 21st century, Caltrans is embarking on its “Greening the Fleet” initiative, leading the way to cleaner air by using viable, emerging technologies, and staying ahead of government regulations. I-80 from San Francisco to the Nevada border is undergoing some major renovations and improvements. In the Sacramento area, Caltrans is adding 10 miles of carpool (HOV) and auxiliary lanes to I-80 in the median from the Sacramento River Bridge to the Capital City Freeway split. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2008/2009.

Currently, Caltrans is installing 10 traffic-monitoring sensors, 15 traffic cameras, and 16 ramp meters along I-5 at various locations. These Traffic Operations System elements will ultimately provide congestion relief and give the motoring public muchneeded travel information along these highly traveled stretches of freeway. As its current highway system matures, it’s clear that adding more lanes just isn’t feasible in most locations. To that end, Caltrans and its partners have installed FasTrak, an electronic toll collection system, on all toll bridges. Changeable message signs have been used extensively to apprise motorists of highway conditions, even providing travel times between points in many locations. Its Traffic Management Center (TMC) is state of the art, a place where Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) monitor traffic and can respond to incidents by dispatching CHP, tow trucks, or other emergency services to clear accidents, stalls, and other impediments.

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first contract following the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act. But because Colorado’s historical documents do not contain enough specific data about individual contracts, it is impossible to determine which one was the first.

There are no circumferential Interstates completed in Colorado, the DOT reports. The E470 beltway around the Denver area is approximately 80 percent complete, but does not include any segments of Interstate highway. It does currently include two segments of privately-owned toll road, as well as another segment of non-Interstate, access-controlled state highway (C-470).

Colorado’s spectacular Rocky Mountains challenged Interstate designers both structurally and environmentally. Construction of the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels on I-70 (1968-1980) was one such project, with a combined project cost of $262 million ($665 million in 2005 dollars). At an elevation of 11,000 feet, they are the highest vehicular tunnels in the United States.

Likewise, the construction of the I-70 Glenwood Canyon Final Link, 1980-1992, was an outstanding, award-winning feat of engineering and environmental sensitivity that completed I-70 in Colorado. Glenwood Canyon was hailed as one of the world’s greatest civil engineering feats for its innovative use of viaducts and tunnels, and for its environmental sensitivity and stewardship in leaving as much of the fragile canyon ecosystem undisturbed as possible despite the enormous size and scope of the construction project.

Yet another outstanding project is the “T-REX” I-25 southeast Denver corridor reconstruction program, 2001-2006. T-REX (Transportation Expansion) is reconstructing approximately 17 miles of the I-25 and I-225 freeways, with the addition of light rail and related stations and facilities. It is one of the largest multimodal projects in the nation ($1.67 billion), as well as a major design-build project. Its completion in November 2006 will occur two years ahead of initial projections.

In 2005, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens broke ground on the Colorado Springs Metro Interstate Expansion (COSMIX) – a 2.5-year, $150 million program to increase I-25 capacity through the north side of Colorado Springs – a widening of the freeway to three lanes in each direction from Circle Drive to North Academy Boulevard, and reconstructing the Bijou Street and North Nevada/Rockrimmon Boulevard interchanges. COSMIX is the largest transportation project ever undertaken in the rapidly-growing Colorado Springs area. When I-25 opened in Colorado Springs in 1960, it carried approximately 8,500 vehicles per day. In 2005, as COSMIX was getting under way, the average daily vehicle count in the COSMIX project area was 100,000 vehicles. By 2020, that number is expected to rise to 170,000 vehicles per day.

Major areas of emphasis for future improvement, capacity expansion, and congestion management are projected to be: • I-25 Denver north to Ft. Collins. Expansion projects in that area are under way; mushrooming population growth in the Northern Front Range requires that this section of I25 be improved and expanded in order to meet capacity needs.

• I-25 between Denver and Colorado Springs. With approximately 3.5 million residents living along this corridor, future capacity needs must be met. Improvements in place along the north end of the corridor, including climbing lanes southbound out of Denver, and along the descent into Denver from the south, have helped alleviate nagging backups that were occurring in the area. Approximately 55 miles of the corridor remains two lanes in each direction.

• I-70 Denver West. This is the most high-profile corridor currently under study, and it is under the most intense public scrutiny, as well. President Eisenhower expressed frustration at weekend traffic backups on two-lane U.S. 6 and 40 between Denver and Fraser on his frequent fishing trips in the 1950s. Since then, despite the building of I-70 on that same approximate route from Denver to the U.S. 40 exit near Georgetown, the corridor has rapidly become overwhelmed by the population growth of the Front Range and Colorado’s growing popularity as a year-round Rocky Mountain recreation paradise.

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All segments of travel on the I-70 West corridor – local travel, commuter travel, business travel, commercial travel, recreational travel – are increasing. At times, particularly on summer/fall and winter weekends when Front Range traffic is flowing to and from the mountains, Interstate traffic is far beyond the design capacity of the roadway. Numerous proposals to alleviate the situation have included additional lanes for I-70 and a fixed guideway monorail or other transit system. No consensus solution has yet been identified as of 2006. Any solution to the problem will be both massive and massively expensive, the DOT reports.

HAWAII: Urbanized Oahu Served by Interstates Although not linked to the mainland, Hawaii has sections of the Interstate system. They are H-1, H-2, and H-3, all on the Island of Oahu, with a total mileage of just under 54 miles.

H-3 is widely considered to be one of the nation’s most beautiful Interstates. The H-3 Freeway, the largest public works project in the history of Hawaii, has also been the most controversial, the most studied, and the most expensive highway in the state’s history, the Hawaii DOT reports.

In the meantime, H-1 serves Oahu’s built-up urban coast, from near Diamond Head State Monument on the east, through Honolulu, to terminate beyond Pearl Harbor on the west. H-2 connects Pearl City at Pearl Harbor to Wahiawa in the interior. To the astonishment of mainland tourists, these expressways carry heavy rush hour traffic as intense as any found in the lower 48 states.

The newest of the highways, H-3 was authorized as part of the Statehood Act of 1960, one of three Interstate and Defense Highways in Hawaii to be federally funded. Although the Interstate generally connects states, Hawaii was able to receive Interstate funds because of the designation of its routes as defense highways. H-1 connects the Hawaii National Guard at Diamond Head to Barbers Point Naval Air Station, with off ramps to Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Bases. H-2 connects the Hickam/Pearl Harbor area with Schofield Barracks. H-3 provides the final link between Pearl Harbor/Hickam and Marine Base Hawaii at Kaneohe.

During the 37 years since the project began, H-3 has survived corridor changes; legal challenges; lengthy delays due to court injunctions; construction challenges, including a mile-long tunnel through volcanic mountains; proximity to the Coast Guard’s Omega Station; and lots of rain. H-3 was the first project in Hawaii to require an Environmental Impact Statement following the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act by Congress. The environmental studies conducted for H-3 spanned 20 years, and reach a height of four feet if stacked one on top of the other.

H-3 was originally envisioned as a six-lane highway through Moanalua Valley at a cost of $250 million. Thirty-seven years later, the highway is through Halawa Valley at a cost of $1.3 billion. H3 has one of the most spectacular mountainous drives in the

nation as it connects leeward and windward Oahu through the mile-long Trans-Koolau Tunnel. The Interstate freeway begins in the North Halawa Valley, climbs to the portal of the Trans-Koolau Tunnel, tunnels through ancient lava rock, emerges into the scenic Haiku Valley, soars on a graceful viaduct, hugs Ho’omaluhia Park, and ends 16.1 miles later at the entrance to Marine Base Hawaii at Kaneohe.

The H-3 was built in 27 separate construction packages by seven different contractors and four joint ventures at a cost of $1.3 billion. It has two sets of tunnels, two long viaducts, and 26 bridges. The roadway width of H-3 is 38 feet in each direction, which consists of two 12-foot lanes, a 10-foot right shoulder, and a 4-foot left shoulder. Due to its sensitive location, a number of innovative construction techniques were used to construct H-3.

Instead of pile driving for piers, the DOT chose drilled shafts and cast-in-place concrete piers. This method reduced noise during construction, was suitable in a wide range of soil conditions, and was capable of carrying very large loads. The extensive use of drilled shafts for H-3 bridge foundations has advanced the knowledge and experience of engineers and contractors and has made the use of shafts a common practice in the islands.

IDAHO: Wall Puts Squeeze on I-84 in Narrow Gorge The first four-lane section of Interstate to be completed by the Idaho Department of Highways was I-86 between Rockland and American Falls, completed in 1958-59. A two-lane segment was completed between Massacre Rocks and the Rockland Junction in 1957-58, the Idaho Transportation Department reports; this was the first contract to be signed under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act. The Gem State’s first urban segment of Interstate was I-84 through Caldwell, completed in 1983.

Lloyd Barron was one of the most influential persons in the history of Idaho transportation. Barron served as chairman of the Idaho House Transportation Committee from 1954-58, and was the chairman of the Idaho Senate Transportation Committee from 1960-68. He was appointed to the Idaho Transportation Board in 1968 and served 20 years before retiring in 1988.

Remarkable Interstate projects by the Idaho Transportation Department include I-15 construction over Malad and Monida passes; I-90 construction over Lookout Pass and around and over Lake Coeur d’Alene; and construction of the Wallace Viaduct to preserve the town of Wallace.

I-86 was constructed with the protection of the Snake River and remnants of the Oregon Trail in mind, and I-84 is noteworthy for construction of a retaining wall at Glenns Ferry to squeeze the Interstate between a mountain gap, railroad tracks, and the Snake River.

Future projects include I-84 expansion in the Treasure Valley (Boise), continued modernization and expansion of U.S. 95 to four lanes where possible, and modernization and expansion of U.S. 30 between Lava and Topaz.

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MONTANA: I-15 Construction Restores Damaged Boulder River In the Treasure State of Montana, I-90 from Drummond to Gold Creek was the first Interstate project completed by the Montana Highway Department, in 1959. The state did not have any limitedaccess highways prior to the Interstates.

The first contract let under the Interstate act was for I-90 over the Little Big Horn River Bridge in Big Horn County in the south-central part of the state. The first circumferential Interstate was I-15 around Great Falls.

Two segments of Montana Interstates have been recommended for National Register of Historic Places eligibility. I-15, Woodville to Boulder, is located between Butte and Helena. It was one of the last segments of Interstate built in Montana and had some of the most difficult geographic/geologic and environmental obstacles to surmount. It did so in a big way and restored the Boulder River to life in the process, as it had been polluted by nearly a century’s worth of mining.

Also, I-15, Sieben Interchange to Hardy Creek Interchange, has been nominated. This route passes through the Wolf Creek and Missouri River canyons between Helena and Great Falls.

Today, most Interstate projects in Montana involve maintenance of the existing system, reports the Montana Department of Transportation. There are, however, new Interchange projects in the works at Helena (I-15) and at Belgrade (I-90).

NEVADA: New Hoover Dam Bridge Highlight of System

NEW MEXICO: State Gets GRIP on Interstate Needs The foundation was placed recently for a major National Highway System project in Nevada – the new U.S. 93 bridge over the Colorado River just below the Hoover Dam. The United States' largest concrete arch [bridge] will complement the immense Art Deco concrete dam and take traffic off the structure.

The New Mexico Highway Department’s oldest Interstate highway is I-24, Tramway to Bernalillo – actually built in 1954 – and was designated as an Interstate in 1956. However, the first contract under the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act was for a 9.8-mile segment east of Clines Corners and let to bid in September 1956, at a

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The first section of Interstate constructed by the Nevada Department of Highways was U.S. 40, now I-80, in Reno. But limitedaccess highways were no stranger to the Silver State, with U.S. Routes 40 (I-80), 91 (I-15), U.S. 50, U.S. 93, U.S. 395, U.S. 6, and U.S. 95 all in operation prior to the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act. The Nevada Department of Transportation reports that U.S. 40 (I80) from the urban limits of Reno to Sparks constituted the state’s first urban expressway.

In 2002 the Nevada Transportation Board approved a Landscape and Aesthetics Plan that earmarked 3 percent of projects to influence the total visual impression of the highway. But they are more than plants and art. They include well-proportioned and visually pleasing bridges, slopes, and drainage swales, views of the highway from adjacent neighborhoods, and carefully preserved scenic vistas viewed by motorists driving through Nevada.

On the engineering side, a dramatic new bridge will span the Colorado River just below the Hoover Dam. When opened in 2008, everything about the U.S. 93 project will be on a grand scale, from its location to its distinction as what will be the country’s largest concrete arch. Approaches from Nevada and Arizona are near completion, and construction on the actual bridge structure has begun.

Monitoring and responding to the flow of vehicles on Interstates and arterials will be made easier in Nevada with completion of a new high-tech facility in Las Vegas. Named FAST for the Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation, the new center, which opened in early 2006, brought together the Department of Public Safety’s Nevada Highway Patrol, the Intelligent Transportation System of southern Nevada, and a new maintenance facility for NDOT. The Nevada DOT is also taking advantage of the latest technology for relieving traffic congestion, including ramp metering and HOV lanes. A widening project on the east-west freeway, U.S. 95, is nearing completion, and projects on the north-west freeway, I-15, will include new interchanges and widening of lanes.

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NEW MEXICO DOT PHOTO

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An overpass is built over I-40, seen here under construction in New Mexico in 1967. cost of $1.476 million ($10.2 million in 2005).

The first urban segment of Interstate in the Land of Enchantment was I-40 in Albuquerque. There, the original Big “I” was complete and opened at the junction of I-40 and I-25 in Albuquerque in 1966, making it the first system interchange in New Mexico within a 250-mile radius.

This century, the New Mexico Department of Transportation undertook the reconstruction of the new Big “I” in 2000 at a cost of $293 million. Executed in 23 months, the project was the fastest reconstruction of a full system interchange in the United States to date.

The New Mexico Legislature approved a new $1.2 billion bonding program, Gov. [Bill] Richardson’s Investment Partnership (GRIP), in 2003, addressing the state’s most critical infrastructure needs over an eight-year period. As part of the program, $500 million is dedicated to reconstruction of critical segments of the Interstate system and $750 million is dedicated to the remaining NHS system.

The New Mexico DOT is integrating multimodal systems (rail and transit), which will complement the Interstate system. More

specific to the Interstate system will be the incorporation and development of lane-management strategies, along with urban and rural ITS additions and enhancements.

OREGON: Early Funding Paved Way to Early Limited Access The Oregon State Highway Department’s first Interstate was I-5, Myrtle Creek to Canyonville (1959). Nestled between a large cut to the west and the Umpqua River to the east, this section follows a sharply curved route that still requires flashing lights and signed speed reductions.

As the road straightens out south of Myrtle Creek toward Canyonville, it follows essentially flat bottomland before sweeping along a bend in the South Umpqua River that was documented as an early postcard view. This also was Oregon’s first Interstate contract.

The Oregon Department of Transportation regards the Banfield as the state’s first urban Interstate segment.

But early on, Oregon laid the foundation for limited-access highways prior to the Interstates. The Banfield, or the westernmost part of I-84 today, from I-5 to I205 in Portland, was completed in 1955.

Work on this congested roadway began

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after the Oregon Legislature passed S.B. 121 in 1947, creating both the legal framework for the creation of controlled-access highways and, in 1952, the bond-funding mechanisms to help pay for them.

Beginning in 1949, because of OSHD efforts – aided in no small part by local political leaders who saw access to efficient highways as a major component of their own community’s potential for postwar growth – the Oregon State Legislature undertook a series of actions to make a significant financial commitment to improving the state’s highways. These efforts in the Legislature allowed Oregon to begin building controlled-access, grade-separated highways before the Federal-Aid Highway Act was passed in 1956.

The Stadium Freeway, sometimes called the West Portland Freeway, now called I-405, may be considered “circumferential,” as it connects to I-5 north and south of Oregon’s major metropolitan area, Portland. The freeway, 4.2 miles long, required the total clearing of a wide swath of densely developed commercial structures near the heart of the downtown. The land acquisition, multiple grade crossings, and depressed construction of this comparatively short route combined to make it, per mile, the single most expensive Interstate project in Oregon’s history, with a cost of $121 million (1964-1969). Its final link, the Fremont Bridge, was opened in November 1973, completing Portland’s “Inner Loop.”

Robert H. “Sam” Baldock, Oregon State Highway Engineer, played an integral role in the development of Oregon’s highway system prior to the war, helping to establish the state as a national leader. Baldock began to advocate for large-scale improvements in the primary road system, with the strong support of Thomas H. Banfield and the other members of the Oregon State Highway Commission.

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Oregon's I-80 was completed in 1964.

Oregon finished its 308 miles of the north-south Interstate 5, border to border, in October 1966, the first Western state to do so.

As of March 1970, nearly 90 percent of the state’s 731 miles of Interstate was finished.

In 1961, in concert with the Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs, Oregon established a pilot wildflower seeding program, resulting in wildflowers beautifying many areas near the Interstate.

The FHWA adopted a program in December 1973 called “Operation Wildflower” that was largely modeled after Oregon’s success in this area.

Two areas on I-84 are of national significance from an engineering standpoint. Toothrock Tunnel at milepost 41 eastbound (completed 1937), and the Historic Columbia River Highway (miles 22 – 82, completed 1922) are both at least 50 years old and meet the National Register criteria for national significance. The Historic Columbia River Highway includes multiple structures and a corridor that winds in and out of the I-84 right of way. Portions are also designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Another significant engineering feat is the I-405 Fremont Bridge at milepost 3. When constructed in 1973, the 902-foot-long main span was floated into place on the river and hydraulically lifted 170 feet into place, making it the largest lift ever made. It also features the longest single span length in the state.

The Columbia River I-5 Northbound Bridge was a major engineering and financial accomplishment, being the first highway bridge across the Columbia River to connect Oregon and Washington. Completed in 1917, the main span is a through truss vertical lift designed by Harrington, Howard, and Ash. The 10 spans of the bridge range from 266 to 531 feet in length, and are all of the Pennsylvania-Petit type.

Also, the Columbia River Bridge at Umatilla on I-82, completed in 1955, has a five-span continuous Warren through truss design.

The configuration of the span is unusual in the fact that it takes advantage of a submerged island near the middle of the Columbia River. It is the only bridge in the state having two spans (600 feet each) constructed using the cantilever method.

Future projects include extensive work on I-5 between Kuebler Road and Mission Street in the Salem area, and the I-205 preservation project, repairing and paving the section between the Willamette River and the Columbia River. Planning is under way for the I-5 Delta Park project, which will widen I-5 in north Portland between Victory Boulevard and N. Lombard Avenue Eugene/Springfield’s Beltline interchange at I-5 will be a major upgrade for these communities.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2007.

Construction is expected to begin in 2006 for the new South Medford Interchange at exit 27 on I-5. Estimated project cost is $70 million, making it the single most expensive transportation project in southern Oregon. Five new and/or repaired bridges on I-84 between mileposts 64 and 159 will improve the safety and mobility of that major route.

And, started in 2005 and projected for completion in 2008, more than 20 Interstate bridges will be repaired or replaced along

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I-84 in eastern Oregon. The projects will result in the removal of freight restrictions on the freeway throughout eastern Oregon.

Oregon has several initiatives under way to ensure the state’s Interstates and roads continue to contribute to a healthy economy and high quality of life. The Oregon Transportation Investment Act (OTIA) I, II and III, approved by legislators, is allowing unprecedented investment in Oregon’s infrastructure. OTIA I and II provided $500 million for statewide projects; OTIA III allocates $1.34 billion to repair or replace hundreds of aging highway bridges, and an additional $1.2 billion to maintain and modernize local and state roads. Federal funds are also involved, mainly because most of the bridges needing work are on I-5 and I-84. OTIA III projects will keep the state’s highway construction crews busy to 2015 and beyond.

The ODOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems enhance safety and mobility throughout the state. From the Green Light Pre-clearance Program – saving valuable time and money for truckers – to the advanced “TripCheck.com” Web site, with up-to-the minute road conditions, alerts, road construction details, and hazard information available to motorists either on the Web or by dialing 511, Oregon is a leader in using ITS. Another creative use of technology at the ODOT involves its 2006 test of a road-user fee, complete with congestion pricing, in a 280-vehicle pilot project in the Portland metro area. This potentially new way of collecting revenue for highways charges a permile fee instead of the current gas tax. Results of the pilot are anticipated in early 2007. The ODOT is also partnering with a private consortium to investigate the feasibility of three large highwayexpansion projects, all located in the congested northern portion of the state, surrounding Portland.

WASHINGTON STATE DOT PHOTO

UTAH: First Transcontinental Interstate and Railroad Links On Aug. 20, 1986, the Utah Department of Transportation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the completion of I-80 in both Utah and the United States. The ceremony made I-80 the first fullycompleted transcontinental Interstate highway. Coincidentally, the ceremony was held just 60 miles south of Promontory, Utah, where the first transcontinental railroad was completed.

The Utah State Road Commission’s first completed section of Interstate was I-15, North Bountiful to Beck Street (1960). This section also was Utah’s first section under contract, and Utah’s first urban segment. Another early segment was a 15-mile section in northern Washington County between Anderson Junction and the New Harmony interchange. Utah’s first circumferential Interstate was I-215 around Salt Lake City. It was first proposed in 1957 but not completed until 1988.

In 2001, in anticipation of the 2002 Winter Olympic games held in Salt Lake City, the UDOT completed a massive reconstruction of I-15 in the Salt Lake Valley. At the time, the project was the largest design-build project ever to be undertaken in the nation. The $1.59 billion project included the reconstruction of 17 miles of

highway, 142 bridges, three system-to-system interchanges, and the state’s first High Occupancy Vehicle lanes.

Today, the state is preparing to break ground on a $204 million reconstruction project of I-15 in northern Utah. High Occupancy Toll lanes are being considered for I-15 in Salt Lake and Utah Counties. The UDOT is constantly looking for ways to optimize the existing transportation system, the agency reports. Applications currently being examined in Utah include High Occupancy Toll lanes and toll roads. The department also actively encourages carpooling as a means of managing congestion.

WASHINGTON STATE: Massive Bond Issue Launched Interstates On April 1, 1957, the State of Washington Department of Highways established a special office charged with property acquisition within the established right-of-way of the Seattle Freeway, now the Seattle portion of I-5. The acquisition was made possible by the sale of $75 million in bonds ($509 million in 2005), authorized by the state legislature, and redeemable from federal highway funds.

On Oct. 1, 1957, the first portion of the future I-5, received federal approval and funding. The first completed project was the Vancouver-Portland Interstate Bridge, part of I-5, completed in 1958 with the help of federal funds.

But Washington State already had limited-access highways prior to 1956, including U.S. 2, U.S. 10, U.S. 97, U.S. 99, U.S. 410, and U.S. 830. The Limited Access Highway Act of 1947 gave a mandate to the State Highway Commission to establish limitedaccess routes in the state.

Sen. Warren G. Magnuson was instrumental in having the route of I-82 shifted closer to the Tri-Cities of Richland,

A period display lauds construction of the Interstate system in Washington State in 1963.

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Kennewick, and Pasco, and in getting Interstate highway spurs built to the Tri-Cities and to downtown Tacoma.

Samuel Hill vowed that he would build a hard-surfaced highway from the Mexican border to the Canadian border, and all the way up to Vancouver, B.C. In September 1899, he convened a meeting of 100 business leaders for the purpose of forming a group to promote good roads. This organization became the Washington State Good Roads Association and advocated state spending on roads and coordination among the county road systems. Hill died in 1931, but he undoubtedly would have been in support of a national Interstate system.

George F. Kachlein, Jr. was a Seattle lawyer who volunteered tirelessly for many civic organizations. He was active in the Washington Good Roads Association, the Washington division of the American Automobile Association, and served as executive vice president of the national American Automobile Association (AAA), where he conferred with state and federal officials, including President John F. Kennedy, about the development of the American Interstate highway system.

Washington’s Lacey V. Murrow Bridge, which is part of I-90, is the world’s first floating bridge. The original, completed in 1940, sank during a storm in 1990. A replacement was completed in 1993. And the Mount Baker Ridge Tunnel, which is part of I-90, is the world’s largest-diameter soft earth tunnel.

The Washington State Legislature in 2003 and again in 2005 increased the state’s gas tax to fund a significant number of new projects, many on the state’s Interstate system. The projects of note include additional HOV lanes and general purpose lanes along I-5 in sections starting in Clark County, near the state’s southern border, and continuing north to the Canadian border. A series of capacity improvements and safety projects also are under way or planned for I-90, the state’s longest stretch of Interstate.

A major project navigating the environmental impact statement process is the Columbia Crossing project, which is being co-developed by the Washington and Oregon departments of transportation. It will construct a new crossing across the Columbia River between Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., along the I-5 corridor.

WYOMING: Opened Longest Interstate Section at One Time Cheyenne, Wyoming’s largest city, was the site of the earliest Interstate work in that state, reports the Wyoming Department of Transportation. The first segment of Interstate to be opened by the then-Wyoming Highway Department was a segment of I-25 at Cheyenne, on Dec. 17, 1958. The first segment let to contract was a 10.1-mile section of I-25 north of Cheyenne, on Sept. 27, 1956, to Platte Valley Construction Co. And the first urban segment of Interstate in Wyoming was I-25 at Cheyenne, opened on Dec. 17, 1958.

Ross Stapp was superintendent and chief engineer of the Wyoming Highway Department from 1965 to 1971, and president of AASHTO in 1969. On Oct. 3, 1970, Stapp presided over the opening of a 77-mile stretch of I-80 from Walcott Junction to Laramie. This 77-mile stretch of I-80 remains the longest Interstate section in the nation opened to traffic at one time. Stapp also played a key role in winning federal support for building the I-180 spur route from I-80 into downtown Cheyenne.

Leno Menghini served as superintendent and chief engineer of the Wyoming Highway Department from 1976 to 1991 and as AASHTO president in 1988. During his tenure, the Wyoming Highway Department completed its segments of I-25, I-80, and I-90, and constructed urban Interstate Spur I-180.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Green River tunnels, twin 1,135-foot tunnels between mileposts 90 and 91 on I-80, were constructed in 1964-65, and refurbished in 2002-03. The tunnel concept was selected to preserve the scenic beauty of the Green River Shale formation, and thus eliminated the need for a deep cut in the formation.

The new 77-mile I-80 route opened in 1970 shortened the travel distance by almost 20 miles over the existing Lincoln Highway route, but added a new set of challenges for the Wyoming Highway Department. So much snow battered the highway early on that it quickly became known as the “Snow Chi-Minh Trail,” and closures because of poor visibility and drifting snow were numerous. As much of the highway is over 7,000 feet above sea level and located in some of the windiest country in Wyoming, it became a prime proving ground for snow control research and implementation of snow control measures. After constructing over 33 miles of snow fence up to 14 feet high, the Wyoming Department of Transportation is now able to cope with most winter snow storms.

The Wyoming DOT is currently advancing a plan known as the Multilane Initiative to add travel and passing lanes to several NHS sections. The first project, on Wyo. 59 south of Gillette, began last year and will be completed by summer 2006. A total of nine passing lanes, averaging a little more than a mile in length, are being built along a 25-mile stretch of roadway.

Future projects to add capacity are proposed for U.S. 287 south of Laramie and for Wyo. 200 and U.S. 287 between Casper and Rawlins, as well as for a number of other road sections.

I-80 is a major freight corridor across southern Wyoming and is experiencing exponential growth in truck traffic. This corridor traverses the highest point on the I-80 transcontinental route at 8,640 feet and passes through other stretches of potential severe winter weather driving conditions. Accordingly, the WYDOT has initiated an extensive intelligent transportation system effort – coupled with its blowing snow research project – to help reduce wintertime road closures. In addition, the WYDOT anticipates the need for additional climbing lanes to maintain smooth traffic.

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Guest Editorial

The Interstates: Success Through Innovation

By Bill Dorey

On behalf of Granite Construction Inc., and the tens of thousands of our employees that have worked on building the federal Interstate system over the years, it is an honor and privilege to contribute our thoughts about the Interstate’s first 50 years and its future.

Popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, the authorization of the Interstate highway system not only provided a network of highways for national security, but developed into the primary conduit for commerce providing connectivity to our nation’s urban centers.

Planning for our system of new superhighways began in the late 1930s when planners recognized the need for such an interconnected national system to supplement the existing, largely non-freeway U.S. highway system. The federal Interstate system was designed to be faster and safer than the two-lane roads that preceded them. Today, the Interstate comprises less than 1 percent of our nation’s roads, but it carries more than 24 percent of its traffic, including 41 percent of total truck miles traveled throughout the country, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

The Interstate has brought amazing changes to our country’s way of life through the safe and efficient movement of goods and passengers, and remains one of the most significant economic engines of the United States economy.

System Taken for Granted Despite its huge contribution to our way of life, the Interstate highway system is largely taken for granted by most of us, until sections of it are affected by gridlock or disrupted by reconstruction activities. The challenges facing the Interstate system today are similar to our deteriorating local transportation infrastructure.

Specifically, much of the Interstate system has reached the end of its lifespan and is operating beyond its design capacity.

The United States has experienced dramatic population growth, and that growth has generated significant traffic congestion affecting commerce and our overall quality of life. As we move forward to ensure our country’s ability to compete in a world market over the next 50 years, we must find new ways to finance and deliver the necessary maintenance, reconstruction, and improvement of the Interstate highway system.

Our state and federal governments continue to be challenged to deliver the infrastructure improvements needed, and many transportation budgets have not been fully funded, while

other social priorities continue to take precedence over our nation’s transportation needs.

Encourage Private-Sector Involvement To meet today’s challenges; federal, state, and local governments must look to innovative delivery systems and encourage private-sector involvement in the redevelopment of our nation’s transportation infrastructure. Further, project delivery methods such as design-build must be promoted to expeditiously meet the fastpaced redevelopment needs of the Interstate highway system in the future.

A number of public-sector transportation agencies are using design-build project delivery methods on large highway and bridge projects, as well as on a few smaller projects. Some states are also exploring private-sector involvement through the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that take the design-build concept that extra step. A PPP is an innovative means of developing and financing major infrastructure projects that has been used successfully around the world for many years, and is increasingly being used to develop and finance highway and other major transportation projects here in the United States. Through a PPP, a government can transfer much of the risk and responsibility for construction, financing, operation, and maintenance of a project to the private sector.

By adopting innovative delivery methods such as design-build and accessing the private-sector capital for infrastructure redevelopment, government can bring more projects to market in a shorter time period, and have the beneficial use of these systems years before the public sector could traditionally deliver a comparable program. It is imperative that the transportation and construction industry be innovative in order to help government agencies meet the redevelopment needs of our Interstate highways and honor the legacy of our great transportation system.

Granite is considered a leader in design-build and privatization projects. Over the past 10 years, Granite, with its joint venture partners, sub-contractors, and material suppliers, has completed more than $4 billion worth of design-build work. Granite is proud to have played a small part in the building of the federal Interstate system and congratulates all the government agencies, designers, contractors, sub-contractors, and material suppliers who have contributed to building America’s transportation system.

William G. Dorey is president and CEO, Granite Construction Inc., Watsonville, Calif.

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HIGHWAYS

Seize

Environmental INITIATIVE

By Tom Kuennen All factors indicate improvement in the environment as traffic loads increase; highways are now the No. 1 user of recycled materials PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM KUENNEN

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or years, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways – and the American highway system itself – have been condemned as a despoiler of the environment and destroyer of cities. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Instead, the impartial observer will learn that today’s road construction and highways are environmentally sustainable, and can actually reduce pollution when traffic can move unfettered. The nation’s air gets cleaner every year, even as traffic and trips increase, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s publication, Transportation Air Quality: Selected Facts and Figures (2002), and updated by U.S. EPA, U.S. DOT, and U.S. Department of Labor statistics into 2004. And we know more now about how to construct highways with minimal environmental impact, so the highways and bridges of today are designed with environmental and aesthetic needs as foremost considerations, long before work starts.

Today, on federal-aid projects, the highway industry is creating more than double the area of wetlands that are taken in construction, far exceeding the government mandate of 1.5 acres for every one taken.

“Mitigated” wetlands in Lake County, Ill. – created by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority – attract waterfowl despite the adjacent Tri-State Tollway.

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RUBBER PAVEMENTS ASSOCIATION PHOTO

Only one-quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are transportation-related. And all transportation-related air emissions – greenhouse gases included – may be reduced by boosting funding for road construction, thus improving mobility and reducing congestion.

State departments of transportation (DOTs) are taking a proactive role in preservation and proliferation of rare native plant species – and in accommodating local wildlife – in both new and existing construction.

High-reflectance (high-albedo) portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements are reducing energy costs by reflecting heat and light away from urban areas, therefore reducing cooling costs, and have the ability to reduce lighting costs at night in the same fashion.

New designs for hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements are substantially reducing pavement noise by trapping it in pores of an opengraded friction course (OGFC). These same pavements reduce tire spray, making them safer. Research continues on making both asphalt and concrete pavements quieter, and on the best design of noise walls and landscaping to reduce noise emissions.

And the highway industry leads the nation in recycling of materials. Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is the No. 1 most recycled material, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Crushed portland cement concrete also is recycled extensively, and new research is showing new venues for its reuse. And, in addition to those reused construction materials, reclaimed post-consumer and post-industrial materials are going into engineered pavements, enhancing their performance as well as reducing pressure on landfills.

The results have been spectacular. Today, transportation is considered the No. 1 financier of historic preservation and archaeology. Transportation funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects has risen 80-fold since 1988, $2.6 billion in the 12 years ending 2003. It’s part of the nearly 15,000 enhancement projects executed since 1992, providing billions of dollars for historic preservation, bicycle and pedestrian trails, landscaping, and community improvements. Recently, some 5 percent to 20 percent of a highway project cost has been invested in environmental elements, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) “Transportation Air Quality: Selected Facts and Figures” (2002).

Unfortunately, when it comes to recognition of their environmental benefits, it could be said that “highways get no respect.”

Little is said about the multitude of environmental and societal benefits that result from transportation.

In response, in 2001, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) created the AASHTO Center for Environmental Excellence for the purpose of promoting environmental stewardship, along with encouraging innovative ways to streamline the transportation delivery process. AASHTO recognizes that the American public demands projects that not only provide mobility, but also contribute to one’s overall quality of life.

“Across the nation, programs to construct and rehabilitate U.S. roads and highways are revitalizing communities, enhancing the environment, and improving quality of life,” said AASHTO Executive

Asphalt-rubber modified OGFC is placed in the Phoenix area as part of a major resurfacing of all freeway pavements. The asphalt contains recycled rubber and results in quieter pavements with less tire spray in rain.

Director John Horsley in “Taking the High Road: The Environmental and Social Contributions of America’s Highway Programs” [2003], a product of the center. “From preservation of historic covered bridges, to recovery of the delicate and endangered Karner blue butterfly, highway programs are balancing mobility goals with a responsibility to protect and enhance the nation’s natural and cultural resources.”

A Legal and an Ethical Obligation America’s highway agencies have both a legal and an ethical obligation to enhance the environment as they pursue their mission of providing and maintaining transportation infrastructure.

“The Bush administration, [U.S. DOT] Secretary [Norman] Mineta and all of us at Federal Highways believe we can and must deliver the transportation improvements on which our economy and quality of life depend, and at the same time protect and enhance our natural environment,” said FHWA acting administrator Rick Capka at FHWA’s Environmental Excellence Awards in April 2005. “The dedicated people we honor today show we can have a high-quality transportation system and a healthy environment. They delivered excellent projects that keep our economy moving, while they protected what we cherish so much: clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment.”

One goal of FHWA’s National Strategic Plan is to protect and enhance the natural environment and communities affected by highway transportation.

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Air quality monitoring data through 2000 shows that 76 out of 78 carbon monoxide nonattainment areas no longer show air pollution levels that exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. From 1970 through 1999, total CO emissions fell 25 percent, and on-road vehicular CO emissions plunged 43 percent, despite huge increases in vehicles and travel.

GOMACO CORP. PHOTO

“A strategic objective ... is to improve the quality of the natural environment by reducing highway-related pollution and by protecting and enhancing ecosystems,” said James M. Shrouds, director, FHWA Office of Natural and Human Environment. To this end, FHWA measures performance through air quality and wetland mitigation indicators.

Performance of the air quality indicators is measured against reducing of on-road mobile source emissions by 20 percent in 10 years, and the country each year having more EPA-designated air pollution “nonattainment” and “maintenance” metropolitan areas that are meeting their on-road mobile source emission reduction plans.

Performance of the wetland mitigation indicator is measured against the goal of providing 1.5 acres of mitigation for each acre of wetland unavoidably affected on federal-aid highway projects, program-wide.

The most recent firm data are EPA estimates through 2003, which show on-road mobile source emissions are down nearly 25 percent from 1996 to 2003.

Furthermore, at time of writing, a high percentage of urban areas were meeting their emission goals in FY 2004, with over 96 percent of ozone areas, over 95 percent of carbon monoxide (CO) areas, and over 97 percent of particulate matter (PM) areas designated as nonattainment or maintenance had met their on-road mobile source emissions budgets.

That such environmental improvements have taken place in the face of the growth of economic factors that popularly are associated with the spread of pollution just shows how far the nation has come since 1970, and the transportation sector has played an enormous role in all this.

Wetland ‘Mitigation’ Way Ahead of Goals Wetlands such as bogs, swamps, and marshes serve a number of valuable functions, such as controlling floods, improving water quality, and providing wildlife habitat, among other things.

In the early 1990s, FHWA established an agency policy of nonet-loss of wetland affected on a program-wide basis for federalaid highway projects, meaning one acre of wetland “mitigated” (recreated) for every one taken. But seeing a high level of success possible, in 1996, the FHWA revised its no-net-loss policy upward to a “net gain goal,” with a 1998 performance measure of 1.5 acres of compensation for every acre affected under the federalaid highway program.

The goal was far exceeded. By 2002, the highway industry had surpassed FHWA’s goal of 1.5 acres of mitigated wetlands for every acre affected, at a rate of 2.7 acres to 1. On a program-wide basis, the FY 2004 figures – the most recent available at writing – indicate that federal-aid highway projects provided 2.1 acres of

Cleaner Air, More Drivers and Mileage It’s inescapable that the air has gotten healthier and cleaner, while the U.S. economy has grown and the number of drivers and miles driven has increased. The most recent firm U.S. EPA, DOT, and Department of Labor statistics (into 2004) available – as compiled for the Foundation for Clean Air Progress – indicate that from 1970 through 2004, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions have declined by 17 percent, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions have declined by 49 percent, lead (Pb) emissions have declined by 98 percent, carbon monoxide (CO) emissions have declined by 41 percent, volatile organic compounds (VOCs, precursors to ozone) have declined by 48 percent, and particulate emissions from combustion declined by 82 percent.

This was against a backdrop in which the U.S. population grew by 42 percent, to 291 million, overall energy consumption grew by 43 percent, to 97.351 trillion btus, total U.S. employment grew by 95 percent, to 138 million, the number of registered vehicles grew by 111 percent, to 235 million, the annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT) grew by 151 percent, to 2.8 trillion miles, and “real” gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 175 percent, to $10.381 trillion.

Portland cement concrete is an environmentally sustainable paving medium.

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ASPHALT INSTITUTE PHOTO

Americans use cars more than any other form of ground transportation. Ninety-six percent of all passenger miles took place in personal vehicles (automobiles, motorcycles, and light-duty trucks) in 1998. Light-duty trucks, such as minivans, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles, make up an increasing portion of miles traveled. compensatory wetland mitigation for each acre affected. While that’s down slightly from previous years, it still continues to exceed the performance goal of 1.5 acres mitigation per acre of impact, with great benefit to wildlife and society.

enhanced mobility, greatly reduced cost, and context-sensitive outcomes – all well ahead of schedule,” AASHTO said.

Context-Sensitive Designs

Since the 1970s, the highway industry has worked assiduously to improve its environmental performance. At the same time, the environmental lobby succeeded in slowing down projects by using environmental impact legislation to enmire transportation projects.

The results have been devastating, with major transportation projects mired for years of costly delays, new lawsuits filed, and studies ordered, even as existing issues were cleared.

The mechanism for this was the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, which directs federal agencies – when planning projects or issuing permits – to conduct environmental reviews to consider the projects’ potential impacts on the environment. After NEPA, in 1971, the average time to complete FHWA environmental impact statements was about 2.3 years; by 1980, it had risen to 4.3 years, and to five years in 1993. It hit a peak of about 6.5 years in 2002. Since then, the industry has worked hard to “streamline” this environmental review process while maintaining its overall fairness.

In 2002, President Bush issued an executive order – Environmental Stewardship and Transportation Infrastructure Review – that energized federal agencies involved in environmental streamlining for transportation projects. In mid-2004, the average FHWA environmental impact statement completion time had plunged back down to just over five years and continues to fall.

Another way the highway community is making its projects more environmentally unobtrusive is through context-sensitive design.

“Context-sensitive solutions (CSS) consider the total context within which a transportation improvement project will exist,” said the AASHTO Center for Environmental Excellence in its 2005 Best Practices in Context-Sensitive Solutions competition awards announcement. “CSS is a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach that involves all stakeholders to develop a transportation facility that fits its physical setting and preserves scenic, aesthetic, historic and environmental resources, while maintaining safety and mobility.”

For this competition, AASHTO received 75 applications from 33 states. After careful review by a diverse expert review panel, three winners and seven notable practices were selected. “These winning transportation projects, programs, and initiatives demonstrate exemplary efforts in CSS that will serve as models for achieving transportation solutions that fit the natural and human environment while achieving mobility and safety goals and enhancing community,” AASHTO said.

The winning project was the 47-mile Minnesota Trunk Highway 38 (TH 38). The Edge of the Wilderness National Scenic Byway Corridor weaves around lakes and wetlands, allowing travelers to experience Minnesota’s northern woods.

Faced with the need to reconstruct the aging highway, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) developed partnership alliances with federal, state, and local stakeholders to guide the planning, scoping, and design process associated with the corridor. The resulting corridor reconstruction project exemplifies context-sensitive solutions, balancing safety, mobility, environmental, and community values.

The consensus solution focused on maintaining the two-lane roadway and existing alignment, incorporating spot upgrades where needed for safety improvements, and significantly reducing the amount of vegetation that needed to be cleared. The project incorporated 4-foot paved shoulders with a rumble strip and an additional two feet of reinforced soft shoulder to improve safety and accommodate bicyclists, while reducing the roadway impacts on the land.

Context-sensitive features and interpretive sites along the corridor were provided, including turnouts, rest areas, boat access sites, parallel trails, and sidewalk and streetscape enhancements. “The improvements have contributed to significantly reduced accidents,

Stewardship Plus Streamlining

A snow fence complements Interstate 80 near Elk Mountain in Wyoming.

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Environment

The new Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users (SAFETEA-LU, August 2005) contains elements that will help streamline environmental approvals, including a 180-day statute of limitations for lawsuits challenging federal agency approvals.

This is longer than the 90-day period suggested by some opponents, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“Delivering transportation projects better and faster requires a double commitment, to environmental stewardship and to expedited project review,” AASHTO said in its preSAFETEA statements, indicating to all that the two must go hand-in-hand if infrastructure needs are to be met.

And the effort continues in other ways.

For example, the new Mid-Atlantic Green Highways Initiative was created to promote innovative streamlining and market-based approaches toward sustainable transportation projects, and will create partnerships to promote watershed-driven storm water management, use of industrial byproducts and recycled materials in highway construction, and conservation and ecosystem management. The initiative is supported in part by a $500,000 pledge from FHWA, and it’s thought that the initiative will provide a blueprint for similar initiatives elsewhere in the country.

Highways Lead in Recycling The road construction industry is the leader in waste material recycling.

America’s highway construction and reconstruction industry has by far become the No. 1 recycler of waste materials in terms of tonnage, saving tax money, and reducing demands on landfills and quarries and gravel pits, prolonging those resources.

Among the products recycled in road building and reconstruction are reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) as base material and as asphalt pavement, and reclaimed demolition portland cement concrete (PCC) as base material.

Post-industrial reclaimed materials also are added to concrete pavements, adding to their strength, performance, and resist-

ance to damaging chloride penetration.

These include fly ash from the combustion of coal for electric power, silica fume from the manufacture of glass, and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBF) from the manufacture of steel, all added to concrete.

Crumb rubber from old tires enhances asphalt pavements and surface treatments, and is reused as bases for temporary traffic signs, traffic cones, or in rubber railroad crossing pads. Crushed, rounded broken glass also is used as a mineral aggregate in

industry coalition. Using EPA statistics from FHWA, APA says about 80.3 million of the 100 million tons of asphalt pavement that is removed each year during resurfacing and widening projects is reused as part of new roads, roadbeds, shoulders, and embankments. That’s a recycling rate of 80 percent.

The 80.3-million-ton volume of recycled asphalt pavement is about one-third higher than the total volume of 60.7 million tons of post-consumer recycling. And it’s double

Milled reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is stockpiled at an Ohio asphalt plant for reuse as base or in hot mix asphalt pavement. asphalt, along with waste sand from metalcasting foundries and reclaimed asphalt roofing shingles. In California, even crushed toilets have been placed in road base.

But the largest application is for RAP. Special machines mill off aged, cracked asphalt pavement in varying depths and widths, and convey the RAP to dump trucks, which haul to stockpiles. From there, it’s reused as inexpensive road base, added to virgin HMA as a tested material, used for driveways, bike paths, recreational trails, and much more.

Asphalt pavement is unquestionably the nation’s most widely recycled product, reports the Asphalt Pavement Alliance, an

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the volume of paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum combined, APA reports.

Use of RAP also saves valuable aggregate resources. While in America there are plenty of construction aggregates in place in the ground, there are fewer and fewer aggregate sites that are permitted for extraction.

Existing quarries or gravel pits once outside of a city now are being overwhelmed by new suburbs and neighbors who don’t like living near quarries and will fight any kind of expansion. But the RAP contains existing aggregates that have already been acquired, permitted, shot, loaded, crushed, screened, stockpiled, reloaded, and hauled, saving time, money, and resources.

THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM MOVES PEOPLE. WE STOP THEM. At B&B Roadway, we combine the experience, technology and workmanship to produce gates, barriers and navigation lights for the highway system.

We celebrate fifty years of the best interstate system in the world— and our ability to stop traffic when it’s needed.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

COLORADO DOT

Environment

users interpret as a tire “whine.” Randomly varying the transverse tine spacing can reduce the tonal quality problems.

Highways Accommodate Animals

State DOTs mow less and grow wildflowers along roadsides, improving roadside aesthetics and providing cover for nongame wildlife.

Highways Getting Quieter Also, new solutions are coming into play to control noise from America’s Interstate highways, primary highways, and arterial streets. Road agencies are spending more on noise mitigation. On new or capacity improvement projects, sound walls that were once considered an extravagance now are standard procedure.

Engineers are finding that the best solution to highway noise is a combination of sound wall, appropriate vegetation, and a quieter pavement surface. Any combination of the three elements will help, because noise barriers can cost on the order of $1 million to $1.5 million per linear mile, with $1.25 million per mile being the rule of thumb.

Highway noise barriers can be of many varieties, including recycled plastic, wood, evergreens, gabion walls, and precast concrete panels. Trees – such as stands of thick evergreens – have the potential to replace noise barriers, and are aesthetically pleasing, but are effective only in deep stands, requiring additional strips of right-ofway, as much as 100 feet wide.

Efforts to limit highway noise have focused on barriers. But because most of the noise originates at the tire/pavement interface, use of “quiet pavements” to quell noise there makes sense.

Sophisticated asphalt pavement designs – like polymer-modified open graded friction courses (OGFCs) – offer greater tire/pavement noise reduction than conventional asphalt mixes. Also, their porous nature allows for fast drainage of water and eliminates the problems of tire spray, glare, and hydroplaning.

For PCC pavements, texture is added to improve friction and driver control, but done incorrectly it can add to pavement noise. Tine or groove depth, width, spacing, and orientation are all major factors affecting tire-pavement noise. Transverse tinings with uniformly spaced tines 0.5 inches or greater have been found to produce an objectionable tone, with pressure spikes at specific frequencies, that

If all this is not enough, new designs for highways and bridges now incorporate elements that enhance life for nearby wildlife and plants, whether endangered or not. This technology is shared among the state DOTs through the FHWA’s Keeping it Simple Web site (www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/wildlifeprotection/), administered by its Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty (HEP).

• For example, when the Missouri DOT completed improvements on two Meramec River bridges near St. Louis, they left the bottom foot of the work platform intact to benefit federally endangered pink mucket mussels and more than 25 other mussel species, which had been relocated to safer habitat upstream of the bridges. Scuba divers report that sand, small gravel, and other substrate materials have accumulated between the rock rubble, creating favorable mussel habitat, and that the pink muckets and other species are recolonizing this part of the river. Not removing all of the work platform also meant less disturbance to the river bottom and therefore less sediment to drift downstream.

• In Arizona, along a two-mile stretch of Arizona S.R. 86 on the Tohono O’odam Reservation, a simple fence has reduced the number of annual desert tortoise deaths by 75 percent. Arizona DOT maintenance crews installed the 24-inch welded-wire fencing onto the bottom of a right-of-way fence on both sides of the highway. Six inches of the new fence were buried below ground so migrating tortoises could not crawl under it, and the fence was secured to an existing culvert through which the tortoises could cross back and forth under the highway.

• In California, the threatened desert tortoise in San Bernardino County has been helped by Caltrans’ briefing I-15 contractors to keep garbage cans tightly closed and empty trash regularly, because ravens – the major predator of desert tortoises – are attracted to garbage. They’re also urged to avoid handling the tortoises (handling can cause the animals to dehydrate and die), frequently checking under vehicles and equipment, carefully checking potential excavation “traps,” and prohibiting pets from the project sites.

• In many states, DOTs are no longer keeping roadways mowed to look like lawns, saving money, lessening injuries, and enhancing the environment with wildflowers and new wildlife habitat.

For example, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department recently established “transition zones” – areas mowed only once a year – along non-Interstate highways and on approximately 200 Interstate interchanges. These infrequently mowed zones next to high-maintenance areas immediately adjacent to the roadside have increased habitat for ground-nesting birds such as Eastern meadowlarks, mourning doves, and ovenbirds, and for rodents such as harvest mice, deer mice, and cotton rats, which provide food for predatory birds like the red-tailed hawk.

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Visit HEP’s Keeping it Simple Web site at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/wildli feprotection/ for many more examples.

Don’t Blame Sprawl on Highways Another ecological bugaboo – suburban sprawl – is supposed to be encouraged by highway construction, and for years has

been presumed to be draining central cities of their residents, destroying farmland, forcing new investments in suburban infrastructure while precipitating disinvestment in central city infrastructure, and even contributing to global warming.

While it’s clear that highway construction and sprawl go hand-in-hand, it would be a mistake to assume that highways “cause” sprawl. Instead, in the United

States, contemporary suburban sprawl was launched by the railroads in the late 19th century as a means of developing highvalue real estate far from the furor of the cities. Up and down the urban East Coast, and in older Midwestern cities like Chicago and St. Louis, “old line” suburbs lie along former passenger (now commuter) rail lines. Ironically, today, the Green movement considers a beefed-up commuter rail system a way of forestalling sprawl.

In late 2005, a new tome investigated the causes of urban sprawl and found that it is inherent in the human condition. In Sprawl: A Compact History, Robert Bruegmann – a professor of art history and urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago – demonstrates that urban sprawl is a natural process as old as the world’s oldest cities, in which large cities reach a point of maturity, and those with financial means escape the congestion and high prices of city life.

Bruegmann says that what has changed is the fact that U.S. citizens are so prosperous that suburban life is no longer an exclusive luxury of the rich, and that has driven tremendous expansion of U.S. suburbs.

Sprawl is presumed to be self-perpetuating, attracting even more vehicles to overloaded streets and roads, which requires more widening, which attracts more vehicles, ad infinitum. This is a rephrasing of the “chicken-or-the-egg” question, in which planners are challenged to address the issue of what comes first: vehicles or highways. In truth, each are so intimately wound with each other that they cannot be separated.

If anything, the urban expressways of the Interstate system today make it easier for suburbanites to get to the inner city and spend money there, on shops, stores, sightseeing, restaurants, entertainment, and sporting events. The real question is: “How does unfettered mobility in America’s free market economy contribute to economic growth and consumer choice?” And then, “How does road construction multiply economic growth?” In this context, congestion, economic development, and suburban sprawl are the kinds of “problems” that most undeveloped countries in the world might like to have.

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Guest Editorial

Roads and the Environment Find Common Ground with Asphalt Recycling

By Stu Murray

When the federal government committed to funding state roads in 1916, many highways outside cities lacked hard pavements and were lucky to be of macadam or gravel surfaces. In 1916, only 295,000 miles of U.S. roads had any kind of surface, compared to over 4 million miles paved by this year. Back in 1916, auto and truck registrations totaled 3.6 million vehicles, but by 2005 they exceeded 231 million.

To keep up, America vigorously built roads, culminating in our Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Always, the emphasis was on building new roads or providing new capacity. But we now are in the post-Interstate era, and state and federal attention has shifted to maintaining and preserving our roads, rather than expanding the system. Simultaneously, new demands of environmental stewardship have affected road building and maintenance to levels unimaginable a few decades ago.

Anticipating these new needs, Wirtgen America Inc. is proud to have led the market with unique, technologically advanced road maintenance and construction equipment that provides innovative mechanical – and environmentally sensitive – solutions to pavement maintenance and construction problems.

For example, in the past 20 years, America’s highway industry has become by far the No. 1 recycler of waste materials, mostly reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Use of RAP saves existing resources as well as huge sums of tax dollars.

Asphalt recycling and cold milling technologies developed under Wirtgen help road agencies make scarce road funds go further, permit low-cost reconstruction of roads, and re-use inplace construction materials.

A new twist for today, though, is the abundance of environmental restrictions on how and where aggregate extraction and hot mix asphalt plants can be located, which drives up the cost of virgin aggregates and adds to delivery costs. In-place, high-volume foamed asphalt pavement reconstruction – as developed by Wirtgen Group – addresses the challenges of high petroleum costs, aggregate extraction costs, and high environmental standards with one process.

Instead of costly heavy equipment and endless dump trucks being used to dig out and remove failed roads – followed by an equally costly and disruptive reconstruction –

failed pavements now can be ground to bits and then stabilized as road base with asphalt foam in just one pass by a single machine.

An environmentally sensitive project just completed last summer has proven that one-pass, 100 percent cold recycling of high-traffic, limited-access pavements is practical, economical, and environmentally beneficial.

The project – in-place foamed asphalt recycling of I-80 in the Sierra Nevada, a major Interstate highway linking San Francisco with Reno – was completed in summer 2005 and demonstrated that in-place foamed asphalt recycling of Interstate-type highways is a powerful alternative to conventional reconstruction, opening the door for similar projects in every state of the union.

Application of foamed asphalt for Interstate 80 in California provided more than a superior base course; it saved money, big-time. The contractor’s early estimate is that the foamed asphalt process directly saved over $1 million for California taxpayers over the conventional reconstruction that Caltrans proposed.

But much more was saved. Because RAP already contains existing aggregates that have already been permitted for extraction and processed, tremendous savings in extraction and hauling costs were realized. This includes fuel to mine virgin aggregates, fuel to move the aggregates to a processing plant and then to an asphalt plant, fuel used to dry and coat the aggregates, fuel used to haul the asphalt to a paver, and fuel used by trucks to go back and get another load.

Fuel also was saved by motorists – and the air was cleaner – because the one-pass method created a lot less work zone-related traffic congestion. And, as the average virgin hot mix design will incorporate 5.5 percent to 6 percent liquid asphalt – and this recycle method used only 2.5 percent liquid asphalt – there was a huge savings in liquid asphalt alone, especially meaningful these days, when crude oil prices are so high.

As America’s roads and Interstate highways enter their next era, Wirtgen is working to help highways and the environment find common ground.

Stuart W. Murray is president, Wirtgen America Inc., Nashville, Tenn.

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ECONOMIC

BENEFITS OF HIGHWAYS

By Tom Kuennen Interstate highways spur economic growth and change the national economy

T

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PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM KUENNEN

The United States’ economy rolls on trucks, and trucks roll on the Interstates, here on Interstate 15 in San Diego County, Calif.

he role of our Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and the National Highway System (NHS) – in growing and sustaining our American economy – is manifest.

The Interstates, now part of the NHS, have supported the rapid expansion – to incomprehensible size – of our post-World War II economy, whether it be embodied in manufacturing, tourism, suburban and urban growth, or the revitalization of rural areas.

But the role of the NHS is changing in many ways, even as it sustains our economy and positions it for the coming generations of citizens.

For example, in the case of “just-in-time” truck deliveries, the highway performs so well that it has become the warehouse – as well as the link – between producer and consumer. Just-in-time deliveries help manufacturers manage inventories to enhance cash flow, but it’s done at the expense of the road system.

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The daily commutes have changed, with the suburb-to-suburb commute outstripping the conventional suburb-to-city trip. And today it is not unusual, for example, for workers “inside the Beltway” in Washington, D.C., to make their daily trips from Pennsylvania or West Virginia!

Now, the most significant transportation hubs of the future will be multimodal in nature, with Interstate-type highways linking with rail transfer facilities, airports, or seaports, connected perhaps by new-era transportation corridors that bundle separate passenger lanes with truck lanes, high-speed rail, and much more.

Our superb, ever-changing Interstate system makes it all possible.

Traffic, Economy Explode in Latter 20th Century In the three decades ending the 20th century, according to the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO), travel in the United States grew at a rate three times as fast as the growth in population. Underlying economic factors include population growth, but also employment growth, smaller households, and an increase in the number of licensed drivers and vehicles.

From 1980 to 1991, investments in the total highway system by all levels of government averaged a net rate of return of 14.6 percent, well above the average rate of return for all private investment, according to AASHTO’s 1998 report, “Transportation and the Economy: National and State Perspectives.” Annual rates of return on National Highway System investments alone were above 20 percent, AASHTO reported.

Even more significantly, one-fifth of the increase in productivity of the U.S. economy in that time period was attributable to investment in highways.

One way that America’s businesses are leveraging the highway system for greater profitability is through use of just-in-time deliveries. But this application puts more pressure on already burdened highways.

“Just-in-time practices by manufacturers and retailers leads to smaller and more frequent shipments emphasizing speed and reliability,” said the National Cooperative Highway Research Program’s (NCHRP’s) 1996 report, “The Economic Importance of Transportation: Talking Points and References.”

“One consequence is increased highway demand and congestion,” NCHRP reported. “Companies require more trucks on the road, not to move more freight, but to move it quicker and within a certain schedule.” And AASHTO stated, “Competition based on reducing the time necessary for producing or distributing goods is as real as price or style competition.”

Because of just-in-time delivery, inventories can be kept lower at both supplier and manufacturer, and manufacturer and retailer. This keeps capital tied up in inventory low, and minimizes a business’ exposure to capital tied up in obsolete inventories.

Highways Essential, Intuitively It’s intuitive that our highway transportation infrastructure is essential to our economy. For every $1 billion invested in federal highway and transit spending, 47,500 jobs are created or sustained, reported the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure in summer 2005.

“Highway and transit investments stimulate economic activity,” the committee added. “They increase productivity by decreasing time spent on the road, encouraging new development, and increasing property values. Transportation infrastructure generates up to a 6-to1 net return on investment. [And] increased transportation investment improves freight mobility, [as] more than 67 percent of the nation’s freight moves on highways, an annual value to the economy of more than $5 trillion.”

A few years earlier, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 1997 Federal Highway Cost Allocation Study balanced the tangible benefits of road travel and transport against their social costs, such as traffic accidents, congestion, and air pollution, estimated at as little as several hundred billion dollars per year.

The study found that the tangible benefits of road travel and transport surpass by trillions of dollars per year the presumed social costs.

“The gross value of these benefits ranges from $6 trillion to $10 trillion annually,” reports the American Petroleum Institute (API) in its 1998 study, “The Benefits of Road Travel and Transport.” “Excluded are the intangible benefits – like the personal security that comes from access to emergency services [and the] civic participation which roads facilitate,” API said.

Americans spend 20 percent of their total household budgets on transportation, according to AASHTO. “About 94 percent of household transportation expenditures go to purchase, run, and maintain private vehicles,” it said in 1998.

Invest in Highways to Reap Economic Benefits “In order to fully reap the benefits of economic recovery, we must invest in America’s infrastructure to sustain growth and new jobs,” said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo. “We need to invest in America’s infrastructure to lower the cost of doing business in America. New and improved transportation infrastructure will make the American economy more competitive, productive, and efficient and also help stem the export of American jobs overseas,” Talent said in 2003.

“Every additional $1 billion investment in highway and transit infrastructure creates 47,500 new jobs, supports almost $2 billion in family earnings, and generates $540 million in federal income and social security tax receipts. And for every dollar invested in federal transportation infrastructure, an estimated $5.70 in economic activity is generated,” he said.

Talent spoke as he introduced a program to sell government bonds to boost federal investment in highways to a level not possible with the existing TEA-21 surface transportation legislation, since

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Early on, dual-lane highways generated travel-related business for increasing numbers of motorists. supplanted by 2005’s SAFETEA-LU. While his proposal was not enacted, it remains an option for the future as the country grapples with how to meet tomorrow’s capacity demands with the limited funding of today.

“Investing in infrastructure is the key to generating long-term economic growth by promoting the efficient and productive flow of goods and services,” Talent said. “Transportation infrastructure enables commerce to flourish. By investing more in America’s transportation infrastructure, we will not only improve national productivity and stimulate the economy here at home, but also increase America’s competitiveness abroad. “Investing in our transportation

infrastructure will empower American businesses by increasing their competitive edge domestically and globally.”

And the need to improve transportation systems is an intermodal challenge that goes well beyond that of conventional, high-level, Interstate-type highways. “Infrastructure investment is a crucial component of a productive and competitive economy because it underpins most private economic activities,” Talent said. “The cars and trucks of private business operate on public, federally funded roads.

Private shipping companies depend on public ports and waterways.

For example, 84 percent of the $7 trillion worth of commodities delivered annually from sites in the U.S. are transported on American

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Economic Growth

highways. Improving American transportation infrastructure would increase America’s productivity and competitiveness by lowering the cost of doing business in America.”

Fully optimizing the system – which would require enormous commitment and expenditures – would pay back the investment in like manner, he said. “If the services provided by our transportation infrastructure are exceptional, private enterprises will prosper,” Talent said. “New roads, runways, highways, trains, ports, and transit systems reduce travel time and increase productivity. The link between public investment in our transportation infrastructure systems and private productivity is clear. Traffic congestion costs American motorists $67.5 billion a year in wasted time and fuel costs as Americans spend an additional 4.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic. A significant investment to build and improve roads has the potential to save U.S. motorists $49 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs, averaging $255 per motorist. And these potential savings don’t account for the economic benefits we could expect from improvements and enhancements across other modes of transportation.”

Growing Service Sector Because most of the nation’s new jobs created since 1970 are in the service sector, timely labor and customer access becomes critical to the nation’s growth industries. “Additional investments to improve public transportation and highway access – to help eliminate congestion and reduce travel times – support growth of trade and service companies, which are the main creators of new jobs,” NCHRP reported.

America’s second largest employer – and its third largest retail sales industry – is travel and tourism. As the number of “empty nesters” and double-income households grows, the demand for short trips and vacations will grow, placing demand on highway facilities, NCHRP reports, adding that the travel and tourism industry is totally dependent on reliable and adequate transportation systems to deliver its product.

“Highway sightseeing is also, in and of itself, a leisure-time activity both during weekends and vacations,” NCHRP said. “Growth of the tourism and hospitality industry requires increased investment in transportation capacity and congestion reduction.”

In addition to major changes in how the economy uses its highway system to deliver its goods and services, big changes have occurred in how business’ employees get to work. The way they use their automobiles has changed dramatically.

In 1987, Alan E. Pisarski demonstrated in “Commuting in America: A National Report on Commuting Patterns and Trends” that most of America’s commute had forever changed from a hub-and-spoke pattern – in which commuters traveled from suburb to central city and back – to a pattern in which the majority of commuters traveled from suburbto-suburb.

“Jobs have tended to locate in the suburbs, following behind the population shift to the suburbs,” Pisarski said in 1987. “This has made suburb-to-suburb commuting the dominant national commuting pattern.”

In the 1960s, Interstate highways were welcomed and celebrated, as in this picture postcard.

The phenomenon of “trip chaining” also adds value to the commute experience. The increase in female commuters documented by Pisarski not only fueled use of single occupant vehicles (SOVs) for commutes, but bolstered trip chaining, in which a single trip originating at home would involve dropping off kids at school, dropping off dry cleaning, arrival at work; then in the evening, picking up food and kids, followed by arrival at home.

While end users construe trip chaining as good use of time, some transportation planners who challenge the role of the automobile in our society consider them “garbage” trips that don’t fit into their models of travel patterns.

“Most of the [commuting] images [were] derived during the fifties and sixties and involved a suburban worker leaving a dormitory-type suburban neighborhood to go to an office downtown,” wrote Pisarski in the 1996 follow-up, “Commuting in America II.” “The new understanding had three parts, a boom in workers, often from two-worker households; a boom in suburb-to-suburb commuting, becoming the dominant flow pattern; and a boom in the use of private vehicles, as America’s vehicle fleet exceeded the number of drivers,” he wrote. The traditional commute – the suburb-to-central city component of flows – decreased its share of growth, he wrote in 1996, accounting for less than 20 percent of total increase during the 1980 to 1990 period, down from 25 percent the previous decade.

Pisarski’s third iteration, “Commuting in America III,” was anticipated in spring 2006 and was to describe the lengthening commute, sometimes over very long distances, made possible by our splendid NHS.

Trucks Drive Growth But Pose Challenge The advent of modern national and global communications and the impact of free trade in North America and elsewhere have resulted in a significant increase in freight movement, and consequently

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the quality of a region’s transportation system has become a key component in a business’ ability to compete locally, nationally, and internationally.

Businesses have responded to improved communications and greater competition by adopting processes that require more frequent and more coordinated shipment of goods. “Location Matters,” a 2002 analysis by the University of California Transportation Center, found that distribution centers are increasingly moving to areas that have ample land, labor, and access to less congested highways.

A 2004 study by TRIP, The Road Information Program, a national transportation nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C., describes the tremendous challenge the new truck traffic will pose to the highway infrastructure and the Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

According to the TRIP report, called “America’s Rolling Warehouses,” the nation’s current transportation network is inadequate to safely and efficiently accommodate the projected increase in U.S. freight movement unless needed improvements to the transportation system are made.

“The establishment of a national freight policy would help the country to safely and efficiently accommodate increased freight movement,” said Will Wilkins, executive director of TRIP, in 2004.

The TRIP report found that in two-vehicle accidents between a large truck and a smaller vehicle, for every large-truck occupant killed in a crash, 46 occupants of other vehicles are killed. Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina lead the nation in the number of people killed in accidents involving large trucks, excluding large-truck occupants, from 1998 to 2002.

The TRIP report also found that increasing traffic congestion threatens business efficiency, as many businesses rely on logistics processes that require a high level of reliability in the timing of freight movement. Traffic delays have tripled in the nation’s largest urban areas from 1982 to 2001, and while travel of large trucks increased by 102 percent from 1980 to 2002, the total lane miles of public roads in the United States increased by only 4 percent during that time.

Transportation officials are starting to consider a variety of solutions to accommodate the increase in trucking, including transportation improvements around ports, highway capacity expansion, truckonly lanes, improved rail transport, and roadway safety improvements such as wider lanes and medians to separate oncoming traffic.

SAFETEA-LU Addresses Freight Growth The concerns of TRIP, AASHTO, and other stakeholders regarding the threat of excess growth of freight traffic were addressed in the new federal surface transportation legislation, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), signed by President Bush in August 2005.

Communications from the House Transportation Committee give perspective. In 2002, the committee reports, 8.9 billion tons of freight – at a value of more than $5 trillion – was transported by highway. From 1990 to 2000, U.S. truck travel increased by 38 percent.

In the next 20 years, truck travel is expected to increase 90 percent due to an expanding economy and the increased reliance on just-intime delivery.

In response, SAFETEA-LU funds several programs that are specifically designed to improve the movement of freight. It provides $1.9 billion over five years to fund a National Corridor Infrastructure Improvement program, to fund regional and multi-state corridor projects that will improve mobility and economic growth in areas underserved by existing highway infrastructure.

SAFETEA-LU provides $833 million in funding for the Coordinated Border Infrastructure program, which apportions funds to border states for highway projects that will improve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods at or across the border between the United States and Mexico, and the United States and Canada.

The bill also provides $1.8 billion for a new program to fund projects of regional and national significance. This program is designed to fund projects that will have a significant impact on the movement of goods and people beyond the immediate local area of the project.

A new program to address the shortage of long-term parking for commercial vehicles on the NHS also is provided, to the tune of $25 million between fiscal years 2006 and 2009. The bill also creates an Interstate Oasis program, designed to identify facilities near the NHS that offer 24-hour services and parking for heavy trucks and automobiles.

Port congestion is addressed by SAFETEA-LU in intermodal support. It creates a new Freight Intermodal Distribution Pilot program, funded at $30 million between fiscal years 2005 and 2009. It provides $100 million to complete the core deployment and encourage the expanded deployment of the Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) program, which will improve commercial motor vehicle efficiency by allowing trucks to bypass safety inspections and weigh stations, based on their safety records.

And SAFETEA-LU funds several research programs and studies designed to improve freight mobility, including the Freight Planning Capacity Building Program, the National Cooperative Freight Transportation Research program, and the Motor Carrier Efficiency Study.

Intermodalism and Corridors Spur Economic Growth Transportation enhancements have driven the industrialization of the world, said Walter L. Sutton Jr. and David Marks in “Highways and the New Wave of Economic Growth,” in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) journal Public Roads of July/August 1999.

“Transportation improvements have preceded every stage of industrial development in human history,” they wrote.

Sutton and Marks quote Dr. John Kasarda at the University of North Carolina, who described four great waves of industrial development and transportation’s role in them. In the first wave, great cities developed around seaports and along trade routes. In the second wave, at the launch of the Industrial Revolution, factories used canals and rivers for power and shipping. The third wave of industrial development started

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Booming truck traffic is facilitated by the Interstates, but impacts off-system pavements as well. with the railroad system, which opened up landlocked resources. And the fourth wave of development began with massive investments in highway infrastructure that increased traffic, expanded personal mobility, and accelerated metropolitan growth.

Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, the United States is in a fifth wave of industrialization that is transforming the global market and changing traditional notions of development, Sutton and Marks said. “This wave is based on innovations in logistics and manufacturing,” they wrote. “Frequently, components are manufactured in distant countries, and then they are assembled into products near the point of their final consumption or use. Many companies use high-speed jets to ship components or products quickly to far-flung destinations, but all transactions depend on a fast and reliable transportation network that minimizes the cost of production. A recent report by a leading logistics company notes that nearly 80 percent of executives consider product delivery as important as product quality.”

Now, more than ever, businesses require a seamless, intermodal transportation system, they said, describing one of the fastest-growing distribution centers in the United States, the Chesapeake Crescent that stretches from Baltimore to Norfolk. “When goods arrive by air or sea, they can be shipped overnight on Interstate highways or rail lines to more than 30 percent of the nation’s population,”

they said. “Intermodal access has been a major asset for the area near Baltimore/Washington International Airport.”

Another such intermodal connector is the Alameda Corridor, one of the largest intermodal projects in American history. The Alameda Corridor is a 20-mile railway that will carry freight from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to Southern California railheads. Four overpasses and three underpasses are being built to improve vehicular mobility, and nearly 200 at-grade intersections of roads and railways will be replaced by grade-separated crossings. “These improvements will better position California for fifth-wave business development,” Sutton and Marks said. “Local officials estimate that the Alameda Corridor will support 700,000 new jobs in Southern California by 2020.”

Another priority for fifth-wave businesses is congestion relief, they said. Annual studies by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University document the costs imposed on citizens, businesses, and the general economy due to congestion, some $63.1 billion a year. “The 2005 Urban Mobility Report” measured traffic congestion trends from 1982 to 2003, reflecting the most recent data available; if late 2005’s higher fuel prices are factored in, the cost jumps another $1.7 billion.

“While fuel consumption is a large cost for logistics companies, an even greater burden is the time lost because of congestion,”

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TEXAS DOT IMAGE

An engineer’s rendering of the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, to roughly parallel the Interstate 53 corridor, is seen here with relative sizes and positions of truck-only lanes, passenger vehicle-only lanes, railways, and utility lines.

Sutton and Marks said. “In a business where time is money, congestion increases production costs and deprives companies of resources that they might otherwise invest in research or firm expansion.

Yet another corridor in gestation is the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a proposed multiuse, statewide network of transportation routes in Texas that will incorporate existing and new highways, railways, and utility rightof-ways. Specific routes for the TTC have not been determined. As envisioned, each route will include: • separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large trucks • freight railways • high-speed commuter railways; and • infrastructure for utilities including water lines, oil and gas pipelines, and transmission lines for electricity, broadband, and other telecommunications services.

Plans call for the TTC to be completed in phases over the next 50 years, with routes prioritized according to Texas’ transportation needs. Texas Department of Transportation will oversee planning, construction, and ongoing maintenance, although private ven-

dors will be responsible for much of the daily operations.

In 2005, then-FHWA administrator Mary Peters joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, to announce an agreement between the state and a private consortium of engineering, construction, and financial firms. The consortium, Cintra-Zachry, has proposed investing $7.2 billion to develop the approximately 600-mile, Oklahoma-toMexico portion of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

“Texas is a national example for all states and a leader in unleashing the resources, innovation, and efficiency of the private sector to bring transportation improvements to the public faster and at less cost to American taxpayers,” said Peters. “Public-private partnerships in transportation hold great promise in cutting the congestion that’s choking our economy and keeping families apart from one another.”

Rural Counties Benefit New research released in February 2005 underscores the impact that the introduction of Interstate-type highways can have on rural areas. In “Economic Effects of Selected Rural

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Interstates at the County Level,” two consulting firms examined proposed rights-of-way for new Interstate-type highways, and compared them with rights-of-way of existing Interstate highways.

Nine Interstate or near-Interstate corridors were examined. The research correlated data, generally county-level, on population, employment, income, etc. with the time period before, during, and after completion of the Interstate. “In some counties, the changes in population, employment, income, etc. were similar to changes in counties without Interstates,” FHWA said. “In some counties, changes were dissimilar and imply that the influence of the Interstate was positive from an economic development standpoint.”

The research confirms previous FHWA statements that highway improvement by itself does not bring economic development but, in some cases, combined with other effects, the highway improvement can lead to such development.

The National Highway System brings more than manufacturing and warehousing jobs; it brings service jobs to meet the needs of travelers and tourists. Spurred by outdoor advertising along the rights-of-way, travelers

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are led to cafes, filling stations, local historic districts, caverns, and much more. The role of outdoor advertising in stimulating economic growth in underdeveloped areas is so basic that it goes overlooked.

Laboratory in Appalachia One of the best “laboratories” for the impact of highways on economies has been Appalachia, that region which includes all of West Virginia and portions of 12 other states from Mississippi to New York. Congress established the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in 1965. In order to promote economic development in the region, Congress authorized the commission to carry out a number of programs, including the development of the federally supported Appalachian Development Highway System. The ADHS is envisaged as a 3,440-mile network of highways (with 3,025 miles authorized for improvements by the ARC) providing essential transportation access for improving the Appalachian Region’s economic position.

In 1998, the ARC studied 12 of the 26 ADHS highway corridors that were largely complete to determine the extent to which these corridors had helped the region’s economy. The Wilbur Smith Associates study presented economic benefits and costs based upon the travel efficiencies created from the improved highways, which accrue to both automobile and truck users, including reduced travel time, reduced vehicle operating costs, and a reduced number of accidents.

“The improved travel efficiency along the ADHS corridors ultimately leads to an increase in economic production, job opportunities, wages, population, and travel benefits to the people and the communities the highways serve,” the ARC said.

The report also quantified these impacts, using a regional economic model developed by Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI), which is a private sector model that was configured for the defined Appalachian Region impact area.

REMI is a comprehensive economic forecasting and simulation model that has been used to evaluate issues such as investments in infrastructure. Travel efficiency benefits (shorter travel times and reduced vehicle operating costs) are inputs into the REMI model, which generate the regionally specific economic development impact estimates, as measured by jobs, wages and value-added.

The study found: • ADHS had created jobs. By 1995, a net increase of 16,000 jobs was estimated to have been created that would not have existed without the completed portions of the ADHS. The study further estimated that these 12 corridors will, by the year 2015, have created a net increase of 42,000 Appalachian jobs.

“These jobs occurred because the ADHS made the Region a better place to invest, live, and work,” the council said.

• ADHS had led to increased production. The net increase in value added was $1 billion in 1995, and will increase to $2.9 billion by the year 2015. The total present value of this increased production is $6.9 billion (1965-2025). These increases in the region’s production resulted in increased job opportunities and increased wages, ARC said.

• ADHS had created efficiency. The ADHS highway corridors had created travel efficiencies valued at $4.89 billion over the 1965-2025 period. Improved road conditions and access resulted in greater efficiency. By making Appalachia more accessible, economic opportunity expanded.

• The federal investment in the Appalachian Development Highway System was warranted. In 1998, the economic rate of return from an efficiency perspective was 7.87 percent, and from an economic development perspective was 8.29 percent per year (in inflation-adjusted terms, the rate of return would be higher). “This is a solid return on the investment,” ARC said. “Over the life cycle of the ADHS, for each $1 invested, the return is $1.18 in efficiency benefits, and $1.32 in economic impact benefits. These are indicative of a good use of taxpayer funds.”

• All ADHS corridors yielded benefits. All of the 12 completed ADHS corridors produce efficiency benefits, from a corridorspecific low of $59 million to a corridor high of $1.2 billion.

The individual corridor efficiency returns on investment range from 5.44 percent per year to 10.06 percent. And many people benefited. While the most direct beneficiary of the ADHS is the highway user, non-users of the highways were also positively affected, due to job creation, better jobs and wages, and other opportunities.

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• The ADHS had made Appalachia more competitive in the national market. The ADHS highways helped the Appalachian region to be better able to compete for economic opportunity.

This competitiveness is valued at $2.7 billion over the 19652025 period. Even though the system was not yet complete, it already had been helping the region make progress.

The upshot was that the federally supported ADHS – still incomplete at that time – definitely had stimulated economic development in a region that needed it desperately. “The ADHS cannot take credit for all growth, or even a majority of the growth, in Appalachia’s prosperity,” the council said. “But it can take credit for enough growth (42,000 jobs, 84,000 people, $2.9 billion in wages, $6.9 billion value added) to demonstrate that the ADHS has been a good investment in Appalachia’s, and America’s, future.”

Highways Don’t Work in a Vacuum But highways do not operate in a vacuum. Instead they are just links to existing and future nodes of economic activity. Highways are best at facilitating growth when other elements are in place, according to a 1993 study by the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Clemson University, S.C. The study, “Highways Spur Economic Growth When Other Factors Are in Place,” suggests that new four-lane highways can be helpful in stimulating local economic growth, but are not a panacea. Instead, unless a community already has some growth underway, it is unlikely that the new highways will do much to trigger growth.

This dovetails with the 2005 FHWA research on Interstate highway development described above. “[T]he amount of economic growth new highways stimulate depends upon other factors in place in communities,” the Thurmond Institute said. “[Consider] communities at different stages of economic development. At one extreme are urban places with significant existing development in the form of infrastructure and a highly educated, skilled work force. At the other extreme are rural places with little in the way of infrastructure and a work force that is undereducated and largely unskilled. New highways seem to have little effect on economic growth in either of these places.

“But there are other kinds of communities, places, both rural and urban, that have some basic infrastructure (like water and sewer) in place, a cadre of educated, skilled workers, and that are already showing signs of economic growth,” the South Carolina institute said. “In these kinds of communities, new highways have their greatest impact, and capital outlays for highways can be part of a rational economic development strategy.”

Even so, the payoffs in economic development do not occur immediately, the institute said. “For South Carolina highways constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, the institute study shows a lag of up to 10 years between the time new highways were opened and the resulting gains in employment and income.”

Just how adequate highways can optimize internal economic growth in a state was demonstrated in a March 2005 analysis by

TRIP. In “The Road to Economic Development in Indiana: An Analysis of the Ability of Indiana’s System of Highways, Roads and Bridges to Facilitate Economic Growth,” TRIP found that improved highway access is a critical need for many of Indiana’s fastest-growing manufacturing companies, which are being counted on to expand employment in the state.

In 2005, the Indiana Economic Development Council found that manufacturing is expected to remain a driving force in the state’s economy. But TRIP contrasted that with two recent reports prepared for the Indiana Department of Commerce, which found the most critical variables determining whether Indiana companies prosper, expand, or locate in the state are access to skilled employees, the quality of the transportation system, particularly of highways, access to capital, and business costs.

TRIP observes that a recent survey of U.S. corporations found that highway accessibility was rated the most important of 25 factors listed in determining where a company would locate a plant, warehouse, or other business facility, and notes another recent Indiana study found high-growth companies said the No. 1 competitive advantage that they enjoyed was their location, and that being close to markets, suppliers, and customers was critical to their effectiveness.

But the state is determined to make sure that highways stay at least adequate for businesses to work efficiently, and for them to plan for a future in Indiana. That’s important because the share of manufacturing jobs in Indiana is 77 percent higher than the national average and provides twice the share of overall wages in the state than the national average, TRIP reported in 2005, adding that Indiana’s manufacturing sector provided approximately 586,000 jobs in the state – 20 percent of statewide salaried employment in the state – compared to a national average of 11 percent in 2003.

“The Indiana Department of Transportation’s long-range transportation plan recognizes the need for improvements to the current system to allow for the economic growth that is dependent on the highway systems, and calls for an emphasis on maintaining current road, highway, and bridge conditions and for making strategic expansions of key highway routes to support economic growth, reduce travel delays, and improve safety,” TRIP said.

Indiana’s transportation plan through 2025 calls for spending 54 percent of state highway money on preservation, and the remainder on expanding key highway routes connecting major urban areas and improving urban traffic flow. Indiana’s transportation plan also looks beyond the state’s borders, by calling for improved economic competitiveness in the state by reducing the cost of moving people, goods, and freight, and connecting the Indiana Department of Transportation with regional, national, and international markets.

In 2004, Cambridge Systematics and Bernardin-Lochmueller & Associates analyzed the highway improvement projects in Indiana DOT’s long-range plan and found that each $1 in spending on highway expansion in the plan would result in $4.60 in benefits to individuals and businesses. These benefits would include improved safety, reduced travel delays, reduced vehicle operating costs, and increased business productivity.

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Guest Editorial

New Revenue Streams Needed to Save U.S. Highway System

By Thomas J. Donohue

During the last 50 years, the Interstate Highway System has fueled America’s growth as the world’s most powerful and vibrant economy. It has spurred the growth of our cities, provided the sturdy underpinnings of our economy, served as the nation’s lifeline to the global marketplace, and dramatically uplifted the quality of life in America. In short, it’s the envy of the world.

And just as homeowners would never allow their houses – one of their most important investments and prized possessions – to fall into disrepair, we should not let our highway system continue to deteriorate to dangerous levels.

Is it hard to imagine any business in the United States that does not rely in some way on the Interstate Highway System to move its products, services, or people. Statistics tell part of the story: 74 percent of the nation’s goods are transported exclusively by trucks, and Americans log more than 4.8 trillion passenger-miles of travel annually, or about 17,000 miles for every man, woman, and child.

What can’t be adequately measured is the freedom and mobility that Americans enjoy because of our network of safe and efficient highways and bridges.

Even the creator of the system, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, could not have fully envisioned its economic and social benefits to American society.

On the 50th anniversary of the Interstate Highway System, where do we go from here? We face a stark reality: Highway funding is running out of gas even as the functional life of much of the system comes to an end. Put simply, that means we need more money just to maintain the current state of our roads and bridges.

Revenues in the federal highway trust fund — the taxes and user fees collected from motorists who pay for highway maintenance and construction — are falling far short of what is needed to improve or even sustain existing infrastructure.

How bad is the problem? Current revenues fall $23 billion short annually of the cost of maintaining our roads and transit systems from now until 2030. If we have any intention of improving them, revenues will fall $1 trillion short.

We need to be thinking about alternative financing mechanisms. Indexing the motor fuel tax to inflation,

implementing a vehicle mile tax, expanding the use of tolling, and encouraging public-private partnerships in the construction of roads are ideas that deserve to be studied.

The implementation of these strategies will require policymakers at all levels of government to make difficult decisions, but their leadership is critical to continued U.S. economic productivity and competitiveness.

Earlier this year, the United States Chamber of Commerce’s National Chamber Foundation (NCF) released the second part of a study by Cambridge Systematics – “The Future Highway and Public Transportation Finance Study” – that outlined new options to fund the nation’s transportation system. Such options include switching from the motor fuel tax to a vehicle mile tax or expanding the use of tolling by state and local governments. The first phase of the study pointed out that the federal funding share falls short of what is needed to maintain and improve our transportation infrastructure.

Moving forward, we need to keep our eyes on the prize — economic growth. We have to devise and implement policies that will result in greater investment in our infrastructure and thereby greater economic prosperity. All stakeholders have a responsibility to engage in this debate and make certain that transportation funding is a priority for lawmakers.

That’s what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is doing – educating lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the importance of adequate funding, clearly defining the benefits of our transportation system to all citizens, and contributing ideas and expertise on how to meet growing fiscal challenges.

Given the tremendous long-term economic, environmental, and security benefits of a modernized transportation system, the Chamber will continue to work with federal lawmakers and transportation stakeholders to ensure that our transportation network meets the nation’s 21st century needs.

Thomas J. Donohue is president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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TOLLWAYS and PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

By Tom Kuennen Roadway alternatives offer a way out of funding crises

A

NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY PHOTO

mericaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s longtime, love-hate relationship with tollways is warming up once again.

As the Interstate system turns 50, factors have come together to place toll highway and bridge facilities at a tipping point where they may provide the only opportunity to construct or maintain highways and bridges in an era of crushing traffic loads and congestion, undermined gas taxes, and construction prices inflated by the rising costs of land, construction materials, diesel fuel, and environmental and social justice mandates.

Toll highways are gaining acceptance where they were previously shunned, because in many locations they are the only way that needed-but-costly highways and bridges are getting built.

More and more, the public/private transportation infrastructure community is realizing that the paradigm of road and bridge funding via gas taxes is near an end. Due to inflation, in real dollars, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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gas tax is only 60 percent of what it was in 1993, the last time the federal gas tax was raised. Moreover, in the face of relatively high recent gasoline prices, most politicians are showing little stomach for raising gas taxes, at both the state and federal levels.

In the meantime, new designs for autos – such as the gas/electric-powered hybrids – use a fraction of the gasoline conventional cars use, thus putting more wear and tear on roads while paying less and less in gas taxes used to maintain those roads.

Lastly, many policy makers see high petroleum prices as supporting the activities of foreign governments that are opposed to U.S. interests, and look upon reliance on imported petroleum as a national security issue.

So as the gas tax is undermined, new interest is building in using public/private partnerships (PPPs) of many different permutations to fund needed infrastructure work in the face of unimagined traffic loads and congestion. And while there are other potential means of generating new income for road work, such as fees based on miles driven, congestion pricing (“value pricing”), and HOT (high-occupancy/toll) lanes – which will let single-occupancy vehicles use lanes reserved for high-occupancy vehicles, for a fee – PPPs involving tolls for new or improved highways are experiencing strong momentum at the beginning of the 21st century.

The trend is accelerated by new pathways builders, owners, and financiers are using to develop tollways, including federal funding, which encourages PPPs, and other innovative financing techniques.

After years of prohibition, federal funds can be commingled with private funds for highways.

Lastly, new Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies facilitate toll collection, eliminating the hair-pulling waits at toll plazas, and making use of facilities built through PPPs transparent for the highway user. Here’s a look at how PPPs are changing how roads will be built in the years to come.

Opposite: Toll collection differentiates tollways and turnpikes from classic tax-supported freeways. Above: Patrons at this 1960s-era toll plaza are reminded that the facility is not supported by road taxes.

Confidence in Gas Tax Plunges As the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways marks its Golden Anniversary, confidence in the conventional gas tax as the underpinning of funding for highway construction and maintenance is eroding rapidly. The existing, pay-asyou-go gas tax system dates to the Federal Aid Highway and Highway Revenue Acts of 1956, and was based on preceding federal-aid-tohighways acts that date to 1916.

“In September 1954, President Eisenhower established the President’s Advisory Committee that was directed to develop a plan for an Interstate Highway System,” said Federal Highway Administration Acting Administrator Rick Capka in December 2005. “This committee ultimately recommended – and President Eisenhower agreed – that the Interstate system should be funded primarily by gas and diesel oil taxes. The user-fee system – the Highway Trust Fund – has served us well. But,

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traditional funding by the gas tax is simply not keeping up with the growth of business and personal travel.”

Also, Capka said the end goals of the program have changed dramatically since 1956.

“The challenges we face today are very different than those of a half-century ago,” Capka said. “The challenge then was national connectivity. Today, it is congestion and capacity, largely local and regional issues. One business at a time and one commuter at a time, congestion robs our nation of productivity and quality of life.”

Nervousness over the future of the gas tax has been exacerbated by the twin drumbeats of the specter of declining reserves of petroleum on one hand, and the skyrocketing price of petroleum due to political turmoil and natural disasters like the Gulf hurricanes.

‘Peak Oil’ Emergent In late 2005, a new theory – “peak oil,” in which oil is reaching its peak in

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production right now, after which supply will steadily and sharply decrease – gained credence internationally and within the halls of Congress. In October 2005, Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., created the bipartisan Congressional Peak Oil Caucus to focus attention on the issue.

But in late 2005, the November release of a National Chamber Foundation (NCF)-sponsored study by Cambridge Systematics – which found tax receipts into the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) will fall $55 billion short of covering the currently authorized federal funds of $286 billion – ignited a firestorm within the transportation community. The study found that, given the demands placed on it by the new Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), the HTF may be in a deficit as early as FY 2008, which would require added revenue even before SAFETEA-LU expires.

The report – “Future Highway and Public Transportation Financing” – was produced in two phases. Phase I found that the federal funding share falls short of what is needed to maintain and improve our nation’s transportation infrastructure, while Phase II laid out long-term options to fully fund the transportation system and described specific strategies that can guide the transition to a new financing mechanism.

“To maintain our current transportation system, all levels of government must invest $235 billion in 2006, $304 billion in 2015, and $472 billion in 2030,” NCF found. “Current revenue streams will fall far short of these levels: the cumulative shortfall through 2015 is $0.5 trillion. To improve our transportation system to a level that benefits the nation’s economic productivity, all levels of government must invest $288 billion in 2006, $368 billion in 2015, and $561 billion in 2030. Current revenue streams will fall far short of these levels: the cumulative shortfall through 2015 is $1.1 trillion.”

Fuel Taxes Not Indexed to Inflation The major reason for the shortfall in federal revenues is that federal motor fuel tax rates are not indexed to inflation and have lost one-third of their purchasing power since the last adjustment in 1993, NCF said. “Of the approximately 60 cents per mile that automobile drivers now pay to operate their car, only one cent of this is paid in federal fuel taxes into the HTF,” NCF’s report said. “Paying an additional half cent per mile into the HTF would currently fully fund the federal share of needs to maintain the nation’s highway and transit systems.”

NCF said there were ways to drum up additional funding.

Indexing federal motor fuel taxes to inflation would have the most immediate impact on revenues in the short-term, through 2010, the study said, adding the motor fuel tax is the only major existing tax that is not indexed to inflation.

That parallels observations of American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Executive Director

Top: Inviting rest areas like this one on the Massachusetts Turnpike generate income for toll authorities. Above: Toll authorities can use innovative new technologies – like these precast concrete pavement slabs being quickly placed in a toll plaza apron of the New York State Thruway – to reduce work zone congestion.

John Horsley at the spring AASHTO board meeting in May 2005.

“The real challenge facing federal fuel tax revenues is the loss in purchasing power due to inflation,” Horsley said. “The last time the federal gas tax increased was in 1993. By 2010, AASHTO forecasts that inflation will have reduced the purchasing power of Highway Trust Fund revenues by 30 percent.”

Other short-term strategies suggested by NCF include closing exemptions to the HTF so revenues dedicated to transportation are spent on transportation, recrediting interest to the HTF so that the HTF can reap the full benefit of the revenue paid into the fund by users, and giving states and local governments more revenue and investment options by authorizing expanded use of tolling.

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Vehicle-Miles-Traveled Tax? And in the medium term, 2010 to 2015, the National Chamber suggests, among other ideas, that vehicle fees be imposed to capture fair payments from hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles.

And in the long term, it advises that the federal government should provide leadership in creating, maintaining, and expanding a vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) tax – for example, a state VMT fee as well as a local-option VMT fee to help ease metropolitan congestion – and indexing VMT fees to inflation to help close the annual gap between transportation needs and revenues.

Involving the Private Sector Likewise, the Bush administration is working to evolve and improve the traditional approach to paying for our nation’s highways, said Capka. And a big part of that is increasing private-sector investment.

“Through innovative programs [included in] SAFETEA-LU, states have more flexibility to use congestion pricing, tolling, and other innovative forms of financing that have the potential to give us a better return on our transportation investments,” Capka said.

“We recognize along with you that there are growing strains on traditional highway finance mechanisms,” he said on Nov. 3, 2005, when the NCF report was released. “Relying primarily on the gas tax is not the best long-term approach. And, leveraging infrastructure investment through innovative financing will help us tackle the biggest problem in surface transportation: congestion.” And the prime vehicles for this investment are public/private partnerships.

Feds Support PPPs These PPPs bear the wholehearted approval of both the FHWA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Knowing the need for a change in conventional wisdom, FHWA has been carrying the torch for PPPs for years and will use PPP elements of SAFETEA-LU to further promote the concept.

“We’ve been explaining what PPPs are, why innovative financing has so much potential, and emphasized that a few states are already trying it with great success,” said FHWA’s Capka at a December 2005 “summit” on PPPs. “In many states, they’re not yet part of the toolbox for delivering highway and bridge projects, but we’re starting to get the message out,” Capka said. “We’re demonstrating how PPPs can deliver projects more efficiently, faster, and at less cost to taxpayers. We’re showing state and local governments how PPPs can turn their highway infrastructure from liabilities into assets.”

The industry uses the term “toolbox” to describe the group of options for solving problems that is available to an industry stakeholder, be it for potholes or public works funding. “In the coming year, I see PPPs as the tool in many more toolboxes, a tool that is grabbed more confidently, and more often,” Capka said. “The way

we approach financing, construction, operations, and maintenance must evolve so we can address congestion and capacity problems.

We need to determine what is truly in the national interest for surface transportation and then structure a funding mechanism to support those priorities.”

Capka suggested “unleashing” America’s private sector to help correct the nation’s congestion problems. “Let me suggest that our vision for meeting future transportation needs and reducing congestion is the same answer we have for nearly every other product and service in America: unleashing the power and opportunity of our free market system. The same market forces that took us from Ma Bell’s standard-issue, black rotary phone to cell phones and Blackberrys can relieve congestion, reduce the need for road repairs, and improve the safety of our highways.”

PPPs, Tolling, and SAFETEA-LU SAFETEA-LU, the surface transportation act signed into law by President Bush last August, is the largest investment our country has ever made in highway, transit, and safety programs. It broadens the availability of federal financing initiatives such as TIFIA [Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act], a credit assistance program for large transportation projects. “Another provision – what I consider a major policy change – gives states more flexibility to use tolling to finance infrastructure improvements,” Capka said. “States can choose what’s best for them.”

SAFETEA-LU changes in the area of design-build will make innovative contracting procedures much more commonplace. The private sector can get involved earlier in the process. Under SAFETEA-LU, highway and surface freight transfer facilities are now eligible for up to $15 billion in tax-exempt Private Activity Bonds, and this will prove to be an extremely important financing tool as the nation grapples with coming explosive levels of truck traffic.

Federal Highways has a new PPP office to serve as a central point of contact for state and local transportation officials. “PPPs are becoming an integral part of the way we do business, and they will be even more crucial in the future,” Capka said.

Among these PPPs is the proposed Trans Texas Corridor. In March 2005, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Cintra-Zachry, an international consortium of engineering, construction, and financial firms, signed an agreement to develop TTC35, proposing as much as a $7.2 billion investment to develop the approximately 600-mile, Oklahoma-to-Mexico portion of the Trans Texas Corridor. “They are willing to pay as much as $1.2 billion for the privilege,” Capka said. “The consortium, using private resources, will operate the toll road for 50 years and then return it to the state.”

Elsewhere, the SR 125 South Toll Road (South Bay Expressway) in San Diego is being advanced under an agreement between Caltrans and the San Diego Expressway Limited Partnership (SDELP), which is owned by the Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG). MIG is investing more than $150 million to develop and operate the toll road. This $642 million project is being funded by

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

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a combination of senior bank debt, a TIFIA credit assistance loan, sponsor equity, and donated right-of-way.

A Challenge to Governments Sensing the opportunity to effect change, in November a diverse coalition of organizations issued a direct challenge to state and local governments to consider tolling each time a new road or road reconstruction project is considered.

Citing deteriorating roads and a lack of funding to pay for needed improvements as two of the biggest challenges facing state and local government officials, the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) and its partners challenged every state and local government to include tolling as an option for every road project considered from that day forward.

“Roads have become a lower priority than they should be,” said Patrick Jones, executive director of IBTTA. “The time has come for all levels of government to acknowledge they don’t have the resources they need to build, maintain, and upgrade America’s roads.”

Jones and coalition members issued a challenge to every state and local government, every transportation policy maker, and every elected official to: • include tolling as an option whenever they consider building a new road or upgrading an existing road in their jurisdictions; • include tolling as an option when they consider road projects that may be several years off to determine whether tolling would allow them to accelerate those projects.; and • provide a publicly available explanation, if they determine that tolling is not appropriate, as to why that is the case.

Jones also presented Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich and thenVirginia Gov. Mark Warner with the first-ever IBTTA Challenge Award for their recent efforts to advance a study to consider adding toll lanes to the Capital [D.C.] Beltway.

“IBTTA is grateful for the extraordinary efforts Maryland and Virginia have made to advance the use of tolling as a solution to current transportation problems,” Jones said. “Tolling provides an effective and politically acceptable way to begin to address our country’s infrastructure needs. Tolling helps to ensure that motorists get the roads they need. Tolling ensures that the users of the roads – and only the users of the roads – are the ones who pay for them. And tolling provides a way to help better manage and operate our nation’s valuable and scarce road infrastructure.”

Showing Them in Missouri That tolls are inescapable as the nation improves its softwheel transportation infrastructure was demonstrated in the “Show-Me State” of Missouri in February 2006, where toll bridges are common but toll roads are unknown and unpopular.

There, in February of this year, in his State of Transportation Address, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) Director Pete Rahn called for I-70 – a heavily used national route bisecting

the state from east to west – to be rebuilt, even though there is no way to pay for the $3.5 billion project cost.

Rahn described a coming shortfall in conventional funds.

Missouri is undertaking its largest-ever highway construction program – $7.3 billion for 866 projects over the next five years. In 2005, that meant more than 1,000 highway work zones, and 2006 will be even bigger.

“However, in 2010 the construction bubble bursts and our construction program will diminish by over $600 million annually,” Rahn said. At that time MoDOT’s construction budget is projected to drop from more than $1.4 billion to $805 million per year, even as unfunded needs will remain.

“Stretches of I-70, for instance, that are nearly 50 years old were designed to last just 20 years,” Rahn said. “By 2030, the entire length of I-70 will be stop-and-go traffic and I-44 [to the southwest] is just 10 years behind. I-70 needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and needs to be expanded to accommodate evergrowing traffic and the ever-larger vehicles using it.”

As the work is unfunded, Rahn addressed the possibility of using tolls in a subsequent news conference. “I think eventually tolls will be in every state in the United States,” Rahn said during the news conference, as reported in the St. Louis Business Journal.

“Eventually there will be toll roads in Missouri.”

Tolls via a public/private partnership may bail out an exciting but costly new Mississippi River Bridge on the Interstate system at St. Louis, just north of the Gateway Arch and landmark Eads Bridge (itself built in 1874 by private investors). The bridge is needed to reduce growing congestion on the existing Poplar Street Bridge, which carries I-55, I-64, and I-70 into downtown St. Louis.

The new bridge – the cost of which recently was scaled back from $1.6 billion to an estimated $910 million by cutting the scope of approach construction – would bypass I-70 traffic from the Poplar Street Bridge and could be carrying up to an estimated 96,000 vehicles daily by 2013, projections from a bridge funding analysis show. Without the new bridge, average delays to cross the Mississippi will rise from 10 minutes to 55 minutes in just a few years. But with $239 million earmarked by Congress in SAFETEALU, and $41 million for the bridge from Illinois as a start, at least $600 million remains to be generated for the project.

“We have gone back to the drawing board on this project and, working with the Illinois Department of Transportation, have reduced its cost by nearly half,” Missouri’s Rahn said. “Yet, we still do not have the money to build it.”

In response, the St. Louis Regional Business Council commissioned a study by Goldman, Sachs & Co. to ascertain the feasibility of a toll concession, which found a toll concession should potentially raise $700 million to $950 million based on an average $2 toll, increasing at 2.5 percent a year over a 99-year concession with a 75 percent operating margin. Charging a $2 toll would cut the traffic in half as some traffic diverts to existing “free” bridges, but developers would bet that the savings for time-challenged motorists will steer them their way.

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Encouraging Adoption of Technology

In late January, Missouri legislators began discussions on the feasibility and impact of the toll bridge, with potential legislation allowing the state to contract with a private company to build the bridge and charge tolls.

Most Major New Bridges Toll-Funded

INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE, TUNNEL & TURNPIKE ASSOCIATION PHOTO

If the Mississippi River crossing becomes a reality using tolls, it would join all but one of the major new bridges in the United States under construction that are being financed by tolls. In 2006 these included the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Second Span in Washington State, and the Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. Major bridge projects in planning are the replacement of the Goethals Bridge between New Jersey and New York, and the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River in New York. Both of these will be financed with tolls, likely as toll concessions.

Of major new bridges under construction, only the Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement on the Capital Beltway will not be toll-financed, perhaps due to its proximity to the seat of the nation’s government.

Goldman Sachs – with its experience in large infrastructure projects and toll concessions – assisted the City of Chicago in realizing $1.8 billion by auctioning the

Chicago Skyway and turning it into a public/private partnership concession. The skyway, an established, elevated toll road extending eight miles from the Indiana state line to the Dan Ryan Expressway south of the Chicago Loop, was concessioned for 99 years by the City of Chicago in January 2005. The Chicago Skyway Concession Company LLC is owned by

Electronic toll collection eliminates backups at toll plazas and speeds traffic. Toll agencies across the country are doing their part to prod patrons to utilize the electronic toll-paying systems that increasingly are already available to them. This can include cheaper tolls for drivers who pay using an electronic device, facilitating interstate operability of electronic tolling devices, allowing single-occupant vehicles (SOVs) that pay electronically to use car-pool lanes, and allowing drivers to pay tolls at highway speeds via open-lane tolling.

With electronic tolling – which began in the 1990s – tolls are paid with a windshieldmounted transponder that receives a radio signal from sensors at toll plazas, and in return broadcasts the vehicle’s identification.

In an instant the fee is deducted from the patron’s prepaid account.

In 2005, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority jump-started its anemic I-PASS

WIRTGEN AMERICA INC. PHOTO

CINTRA and Macquarie, two international toll road operators.

Top: Cold milling takes place on I-88, the East-West Tollway (now Reagan Memorial Tollway) in DeKalb County, Ill. The tollway is operated by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Above: Florida's Turnpike Enterprise operates the SunPass electronic toll collection system throughout the Sunshine State.

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electronic toll collection program by doubling tolls system-wide for those who paid manually. The result was an avalanche of buy-ins to the electronic system. As an added bonus, in September, ISTA announced its patrons would be able to use its I-PASS transponders on all tollways, bridges, and tunnels that accept the East Coast’s E-ZPass, and E-ZPass patrons would be accepted on the Illinois Tollway, thus leveraging the technology to provide added value for its patrons.

Similarly, New Hampshire’s Turnpike System, which earlier this year accepted only tokens and cash for passenger vehicle tolls, has adopted the E-ZPass system and gives cars with New Hampshire-issued EZPass tags 30 percent off every toll, reported The Wall Street Journal in late 2005, adding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York raised toll rates in March but kept 50-cent discounts in place for E-ZPass users.

And in California, the Bay Area Toll Authority was offering $10 in free tolls for anyone who signed up for the state’s electronic FasTrak tag before Dec. 19, 2005, when new lanes on the San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge were to be converted to electronic-toll-only lanes.

Backups at toll plazas have been a major irritant to patrons and a prime source of congestion on toll highways.

Now, Illinois is making history by converting its traditional toll plazas to a barrier-free Open Road Tolling (ORT) System, said to be the first in the nation, which allows IPASS users to travel at highway speeds on the mainline while their tolls are collected electronically by a monotube overhead, reducing congestion and travel times.

As a rule, each plaza will have as many ORT lanes after conversion as there are mainline lanes leading into or exiting the plaza.

Vehicles without I-PASS will keep to the right to pay cash to toll collectors in smaller toll plazas, which will not affect the free flow of traffic on the mainline. Separating I-PASS traffic from vehicles paying cash will also improve safety at toll plazas.

Since summer 2005, the Illinois Tollway has been converting 20 mainline

toll plazas to ORT for non-stop I-PASS travel, with nine plazas completed in 2005 (Phase I) and the remaining 11 plazas to be completed in 2006 (Phase II). This project is part of the tollway’s $5.3 billion congestion relief plan to reduce travel times through the system, which principally serves the Chicago metropolitan area.

ORT also has come to Orlando. There, on the SR 417 Toll Facility through Orlando, traffic at one of the main toll collection points had exceeded capacity within 10 years of the toll plaza’s completion and needed improvement. The project consisted of expanding the toll plaza area to accommodate high-speed lanes along with traditional toll facilities, as well as widening the roadway to six lanes for 12,300 feet and resurfacing 14,300 feet of roadway.

Using MicroStation and Bentley GEOPAK civil engineering design products, engineers Dyer, Riddle, Mills & Precourt, Inc. of Orlando were able to evaluate design choices quickly and effectively, ultimately producing more than 750 drawings, nearly a gigabyte of data for the project.

Elsewhere in the Sunshine State, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise estimates that a transaction with SunPass, the state’s electronic toll tag, costs the Florida Turnpike about 10 cents, while a cash transaction costs between 17 and 18 cents, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Electronic tolling is slated to begin in Washington State in the spring of 2007 on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and it just started in Puerto Rico last year.

Technology also is speeding design and saving money for the builders and owners. In Texas, a 49-mile, $1.5 billion tollway – State Highway 130 – is Texas’ first design-build project, the largest road project in Texas history, and one of the largest highway projects in the nation. SH 130 is a project of the Texas DOT and is the state’s first highway to be developed under a Comprehensive Development Agreement, allowing the work of property acquisition, design, and construction to be undertaken simultaneously.

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INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE, TUNNEL & TURNPIKE ASSOCIATION PHOTO

The new SH 130 will be a 49-mile tollway extending from I-35 north of Georgetown southward to U.S. 183 southeast of Austin, passing though Williamson and Travis Counties. The project is expected to be completed by December 2007. SH 130 will be a four-lane roadway with toll facilities and major interchanges.

Engineering and construction consortium Lone Star Infrastructure (LSI) is led by Fluor Enterprises, a subsidiary of Fluor Corporation; Balfour Beatty Construction; and T.J. Lambrecht. For this speedy, fast-track design, LSI implemented Bentley ProjectWise and Bentley Digital InterPlot to some 120 users in less than two months. Workflow improvements were discovered on a wide variety of fronts, notably in communications among the design team’s 15 disciplines. Thousands of redundant files and folders were eliminated, and documenting workflow allowed for streamlining the design process.

A Long History of Toll Roads As observed in our prologue to this publication, toll roads and turnpikes have a long history in the United States, dating to colonial times. Until the advent of the railroad after the Civil War, toll roads and waterways were the only options for travel among the colonies, states, and territories. Just before the Civil War, the toll roads and turnpikes began a decline while steam-powered rail was ascendant, until the Good Roads era refocused attention on road conditions beginning in the 1890s.

Today, observes Goldman Sachs, public authority toll roads are pulled in two different directions. The capital markets, which buy their bonds, pull them in the direction of independence from political control so they will be run in a manner which will generate sufficient revenue to service their debt.

However, they are also pulled in the direction of public accountability. “If their commissioners are appointed for long terms, they are accused of becoming a power unto themselves and not accountable,” Goldman Sachs said. “Thus, such roads tend to be launched as independent entities to raise capital, and then drawn into the political arena. Sometimes they are incorporated into the state department of transportation, until the argument for independence is made again. This tension, and the resulting instability, seems inherent when a government authority conducts a business.”

These problems with the public authority model have led to a widespread international movement toward the investor toll concession model. A concession is a grant of control or land made by a government or other controlling authority, in return for stipulated services or a promise that the land will be used for a specific purpose.

Among those concessions in the United States are: • The Ambassador Bridge, chartered in perpetuity to the Detroit International Bridge Company by the City of Detroit, June 1927, opened in November 1929, and has been operated by privately held companies ever since.

The Turner Turnpike in central Oklahoma was opened in 1953 and is the oldest of the state's turnpikes.

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• Dulles Greenway in northern Virginia, a 40-year concession that opened a 14-mile toll road in September 1995.

According to Goldman Sachs, the concession term has since been extended by 20 years to allow the owners to raise additional capital for widening, adding new interchanges, and improving toll collection. Initially a joint venture comprising a local family company, Autostrade of Italy, and a construction company, it was acquired by Macquarie in 2005.

• 91 Express Lanes in Orange County, Calif., concessioned for 45 years to California Private Transportation Company in 1991, opened four Express Lanes 10 miles long in December 1995, and was later purchased by Orange County Transportation Authority.

• Camino Colombia Toll Road, Laredo, Texas, concessioned to approximately a dozen local landowners who had formed Camino Colombia Inc. in the mid-1990s. The 22mile toll road opened in October 2000 and was auctioned in bankruptcy in January 2004, with the Texas DOT buying it in May 2004.

• The South Bay Expressway, an eight-mile toll road on the eastern fringe of the San Diego area due to open in 2007, was concessioned for 45 years by the state of California to California Transportation Ventures in 1991. Construction began in 2003 following protracted litigation and environmental permitting. California Transportation Ventures was formed by Parsons Brinckerhoff, which took the project through to full permitting and environmental clearance, at which point it was sold to Macquarie, which financed and is building the road, Goldman Sachs said.

Guest Editorial

New Vision and Funding Sources Needed for America’s Transportation System

By Patrick Jones

The Interstate Highway System (IHS) is arguably the most important public works project in world history. When you consider the impact of the IHS on American mobility and economic growth, it’s hard to find another project that compares in scope.

As important as it is to pause and acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the IHS and the visionaries who made it possible, it’s even more important now to focus on creating a new vision for our nation’s intermodal transportation system.

America’s economy depends on a strong transportation system to move goods, services, and ideas to global markets.

But the highway system is in crisis because of a lack of funding, deteriorating infrastructure, and growing congestion.

Experts agree that today’s main road-funding mechanism – state and federal fuel taxes – does not generate enough revenue to maintain our aging network, much less build sorely needed new roads. To keep America competitive, we must find more flexible and sustainable funding sources for our highway system.

One such approach is within reach, according to a study released by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in January 2006. After two years of study, 14 of the nation’s leading transportation experts recommended a modern version of a time-tested solution – expanding the use of toll roads.

Tolling is a fair and reliable way to fund, develop, and operate roads. And with electronic toll collection solutions like the E-ZPass system in the Northeast, the SunPass system in Florida, and FasTrak in California, toll agencies are eliminating the inconvenience that consumers complain about: waiting in line to pay at a tollbooth. While tolling is not the answer in every case, it’s a powerful, agile tool for funding transportation and managing congestion.

While fuel taxes will continue to play a major role in funding roads in the short term, it would be folly to rely on fuel taxes alone in an era when consumers are switching to more fuel-efficient and alternate-fueled vehicles, and when the White House is urging motorists to conserve energy and reduce U.S. oil imports. Given the inevitable future oil price increases, fuel taxes might soon provide a declining stream of funds. During the sudden oil price spikes in summer of

2005, for example, lawmakers in several states cut gasoline taxes to blunt the cost burden on drivers, despite the negative impact on highway programs.

Now more than ever we need a new vision for transportation in America. In the 1950s, our transportation policy was this: Create a national system of interstate and defense highways to promote economic growth and mobility and defend the homeland. We did it. But since then, the population has doubled and vehicle miles of travel and freight have more than quadrupled. In short, our highway system is on the verge of collapse and we must fix it to maintain our position as the world’s strongest economy.

An effective, purpose-driven surface transportation system for the 21st century would: • make economic growth one of the driving features of the system, serving efficient freight movements and recapturing millions of hours of productive time lost to congestion; • identify alternative funding sources to the fuel tax, which is losing its ability to fund surface transportation; • tie the use of highways to the cost to build, operate, and maintain them; • make appropriate use of new technologies to help transportation facility operators maximize existing system capacity and give members of the driving public more information and options for how and when they travel; • emphasize new performance measurements such as vehicle, passenger, and freight throughput in the system, as opposed to the amount of federal money spent or miles of pavement laid; and • recognize that political structures are not very adept at pricing transportation services and attempt to put the pricing function into the hands of those who are adept at this activity.

The 50th anniversary of the IHS deserves important recognition. But the best way we can honor the visionaries who created the system is to become visionaries and create a highway system that meets the needs of future generations of Americans.

Patrick D. Jones is executive director, International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association, Washington, D.C.

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Intelligent TRANSPORTATION IS Transforming HIGHWAY TRAVEL

By Tom Kuennen The journey to Intelligent Highways has just begun; the coming Vehicle-Infrastructure Initiative (VII) opens the door to safer highways, vehicles, and real-time information

AAA FOUNDATION FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY PHOTO

L

ong a fantasy of science fiction or pulp science magazines, in our post-Interstate era, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies are transforming automobile and truck travel, already making it faster, safer, and more efficient, and helping optimize the trafficcarrying capacity of our congested highway infrastructure.

But the immediate future promises much, much more.

As defined by ITS America – established in 1991 to coordinate development and deployment of ITS in the United States – ITS is the application of computers, communications, and sensor technology to surface transportation.

While costly in terms of public and private dollars, ITS is a pathway to entirely new ways of using, designing, operating, expanding, and optimizing our softwheel transportation system. Since the public and private sectors joined together to establish ITS in 1991,

Today’s in-dash navigation systems are only the beginning of the ITS revolution.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Intelligent Highways billions of dollars have been invested in ITS research and development and in initial deployment of ITS products and services.

But federal policy always maintained that the private sector be the main driver of ITS adoption. And as public-sector involvement in getting ITS on a common architecture stabilizes, private-sector interests are picking up the pace and providing exciting new products that will further metamorphose how drivers will relate to their cars and trucks, and how cars and trucks will relate to the roadway.

“ITS means powerful benefits in managing congestion, reducing crashes, and improving the efficiency of the trucking and transit industries,” said Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta in April 2001. “Intelligent Transportation Systems have already demonstrated their value in improving mobility and safety, not only in North America, but in Europe and Asia as well.”

Intelligent Transportation Systems are happening today. As implemented in the early 21st century, ITS technologies are increasing travel predictability and reliability, making toll-paying easier, and decreasing the stress of travel. Right now, Internetbased travel time information derived from road sensors is assisting pre-trip planning, including daily commuting, local business travel, shopping trips, child dropoff and pickup, and leisure travel.

“Intelligent transportation systems can contribute to the lessening of dependence on foreign oil, as called for by the president, by helping to reduce congestion in major cities, and providing travel- and weather-related real-time information to consumers and businesses in order for them to arrive at their destination in the shortest amount of time,” said Neil Schuster, president and CEO of ITS America, following the State of the Union Address in January.

Increasingly familiar in-vehicle and infrastructure-based information and guidance systems are getting automobile travelers to their destinations safely and efficiently, connecting them with local services wherever they are, and summoning assistance if a problem occurs.

But ITS technologies are about more than automobiles. They allow transit users to locate the nearest access points, determine costs, and predict travel times.

And the impacts of the explosion of freight volume and numbers of trucks on the streets will be blunted by ITS. Shippers will be able to operate just-in-time and quick-response manufacturing and distribution systems with confidence that delivery windows will be met. Freight carriers will make extensive use of freight management systems to identify and track shipments and adjust routing, destinations, or mode in real-time.

ITS technologies – when fully integrated into our road system – will comprise an electronic information infrastructure that will work in concert with the physical infrastructure, optimizing the efficiency and usefulness of the system. It will be a secure system that can both detect and respond to regional crises.

It will be more than efficient; it will be safe, with far fewer and less severe crashes for all types of vehicles, and far faster response and recovery when crashes do occur.

Instead of today’s in-dashboard map display linked to a global positioning satellite, ITS will provide real-time information on current congestion, encouraging alternative routes in real time and increasing the effective capacity of the system while reducing the need for new construction. This information now is available online for expressways in some metro regions; it’s just a matter of time before it will be available on the dash as well.

Ultimately, ITS will result in a road system that reduces energy consumption and lessens negative environmental impact, and provides a vital domestic ITS industry that competes effectively at home and in the international marketplace as ITS spreads to other countries.

Today’s ITS Dates to 1991 While ITS had been investigated in bits and pieces for decades, the first federal funding act of the post-Interstate era, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) launched a federal program to research, develop, and operationally test ITS, and to promote their implementation. The idea was to enhance the efficiency, safety, and convenience of surface transportation, resulting in improved access, saved lives and time, and increased productivity.

Under ISTEA, the program encouraged basic research and development, operational tests that served as the bridge between that basic research and full deployment, and support of integrated ITS technologies. Through 1997, the federal government provided $1.2 billion for ITS. The subsequent Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) authorized another $1.3 billion through fiscal year 2003.

An early milestone was establishment of a national ITS architecture, to set a national framework in which national and regional IT systems could be created. Even as it continually evolves, the national architecture compels regional systems to conform to a national framework, so systems would not change fundamentally as a driver travels from state to state.

Driven by ITS stakeholders, the national architecture development process solicited public and private input, and today the U.S. national architecture serves as a model for many other countries.

The architecture defines the functions (for example, gathering traffic information or requesting a route) that are required for ITS, the physical entities or subsystems where these functions reside (for example, in the field or the vehicle), and the information flows and data flows that connect these elements into an integrated system.

While critics may question the federal government’s involvement in establishing a national architecture – demanding a strictly open or market-based solution to a national system – the result has been national consistency in terms of subsystems, centers, information flows, and external interfaces, so ITS in one region can be compatible with another region.

Alternatively, a strict market-based solution might have meant a repeat of the Betamax-VHS struggle, in which acceptance of VCRs was compromised by competing formats, or that of 1970s quadraphonic sound, in which competing four-channel

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audio formats confused the consumer and killed the format altogether.

Federal rules are in place mandating the development and use of regional architectures based on the national ITS architecture, in order to draw on Highway Trust Funds for ITS projects through 2005’s Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). This act ended the ITS deployment program at the close of fiscal year 2005, but continued ITS research at $110 million annually through fiscal year 2009. In addition to authorized ITS funding, ITS projects are eligible for regular federal-aid highway funding.

Of SAFETEA-LU funds provided, $20 million is directed to a new comprehensive road weather program, $35 million is earmarked to the I-95 Corridor Coalition, and $3 million is set aside for a Rural and Interstate Corridor Communications Study.

SAFETEA also supports establishment of an ITS advisory committee and the development of a new five-year program plan.

SAFETEA-LU “mainstreams” ITS deployment throughout the federal-aid program, including high-priority projects, clarifying eligibility and referencing ITS in a number of different areas. It also makes clear that ITS projects are eligible for funding under National Highway System (NHS), Surface Transportation Program (STP, for eligible state and urban roads), and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds, with a categorical National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) exclusion of ITS projects, meaning they can move forward without having to meet NEPA review requirements.

“This marks a successful graduation from TEA-21, where ITS was found primarily in Title V (research),” ITS America’s Schuster said. “ITS is no longer a special niche program, rather [it] is part of the ‘mainstream’ of transportation funding.”

SAFETEA-LU also establishes a new freight program to fund the deployment of the Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks at $100 million over four years, and calls for development of a nationwide capability to monitor, in real-time, the traffic and travel conditions of America’s major highways and share that information.

Top and above: The I-15 FasTrak lanes in the San Diego area combine many aspects of intelligent highways and congestion management. HOV lanes in the median of I-15 implement automated dynamic pricing, in which per-trip fees are debited from established driver accounts via windshield-mount transponders, allowing the flexibility of varying charges with the level of congestion. In 2007 a concrete, hinged permanent movable barrier will be installed in the HOV lanes, permitting dynamic, on-demand reconfiguration of the HOV four-lane width from one and three lanes either way, to two and two, or to all four lanes in either direction, to better serve drivers under peak demand conditions.

Through this period, ITS America has played an essential role in coordinating public and private activity in ITS. ITS America members include federal, state, local, and even foreign government agencies; national and international companies involved in the development of ITS;

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universities, independent research organizations, public interest groups; and many others with a stake in ITS, so it’s truly a public/private undertaking. In fact, ITS America was originally formed as a utilized federal advisory committee; today ITS America works closely with the U.S.

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Intelligent Highways

DOT on projects and programs in support of the national ITS program.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM KUENNEN

AASHTO: Optimize the System The American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) sees IT as a means of optimizing the highway system so it can better accommodate the crushing traffic volumes of today and the future.

The most recent traffic surveys show that despite slow growth in jobs and travel up to 2003, bad traffic congestion has gotten worse, now costing Americans $63.1 billion a year. And if 2005’s higher fuel prices are factored in, the cost jumps another $1.7 billion, say Tim Lomax, research engineer, and David Schrank, associate research scientist, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), in the “2005 Urban Mobility Report.” The report – updated each year – is released to the national media just ahead of the Memorial Day travel period.

The “2005 Urban Mobility Report” – the most recent available at writing – measured traffic congestion trends from 1982 to 2003, reflecting the most recent data available. The TTI study found: • Annual delay per peak period (rush hour) traveler grew from 16 hours to 47 hours since 1982.

• The number of urban areas with more than 20 hours of annual delay per peak traveler has grown from only five in 1982 to 51 in 2003.

• The total amount of delay reached 3.7 billion hours in 2003.

• Wasted fuel in 2003 totaled 2.3 billion gallons lost to engines idling in traffic jams.

TTI put a price tag on the value of extra travel time (or delay), and the extra fuel consumed by vehicles traveling at slower speeds. Travel time has a value of $13.75 per person-hour and $72.65 per truck-hour in 2003. Fuel cost per gallon is the average price for each state.

In addition to the costs of delays and wasted fuel caused by congestion, AASHTO notes the cost in human life – an aver-

age of 43,000 lives on American roads each year – due to system performance.

While capacity increases are possible, they are becoming more expensive and politically difficult than ever before, and on average are not keeping pace with growing demand. Little wonder, then,

ultimate in the safe and efficient operation of the transportation network we have today, AASHTO says. “The need to optimize our transportation system springs from the recognition that growth in demand has far outstripped our ability to provide adequate new capacity,” AASHTO adds.

Ramp metering – shown here on Calif. 91 in Buena Park, Calif. – optimizes the rush-hour capacity of existing highways by inserting more space between entering vehicles. that AASHTO seeks to “optimize” the system; that is, revamp the existing infrastructure so it can handle more traffic in a safer manner.

Capacity vs. Operations Improvements Congestion relief can be divided into two main types; operations improvements, which attempt to optimize the traffic-carrying capacity of existing lanes without added capacity, and capacity improvements.

In its 2004 publication, “Optimizing the System: Saving Lives, Saving Time,” AASHTO defines optimizing as “improving or developing to the greatest extent possible.”

“Optimizing the System” describes the mission embraced by most state departments of transportation as they seek the

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The goal must be to make the system work better, safer, and smarter, to both save lives and save time for our citizens, AASHTO maintains. “There is no single solution to this challenge, there are many, from the rapid clearing of traffic accidents, to advising motorists of traffic tie-ups or weather delays, to improving highway work zones for the safety of both drivers and workers,” the nation’s state DOTs said. “There is a tremendous amount of technology that can be deployed, and models that can be used.”

ITS Offers Congestion Relief The ITS technologies of today and the future offer promise for congestion relief through optimization of the road system, AASHTO says. “These utilize the latest in computer and communications technologies

I N N O VAT I O N S IN SAFETY Our Nation's interstates have seen tremendous improvements in safety over the past 50 years. For the past 15 years, MG Squared, Inc. of Birmingham, Alabama, has been instrumental in developing and providing two specific products that have followed the spirit of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (23 C.F.R. 625.2) which list as a main goal "to provide the highest practical and feasible level of safety for people and property associated with the Nations' Highway Transportation Systems, and further, to reduce highway hazards along with the resulting number and severity of accidents on all the nation's highways."

DOT•PLUG® SAVES TIME, MONEY AND LIVES About 15 years after AASHTO began to require breakaway light poles, MG Squared discovered that while pole structures may be structurally breaking away safely, the electrical components were not. In fact, once the pole broke away the remaining electrical wiring created a fire and electrical hazard to accident victims, rescue personnel and the general public. With innovative guidance from then Alabama DOT Head Electrical Engineer, P. Cowan Watson, MG Squared President/Engineer M.A. Maners Jr. developed, tested and deployed an electrical disconnect system specifically for breakaway light poles. The system, now known simply as DOT•PLUG®, continues to provide the ultimate in safety and maintainability in every state where it is used. The DOT•PLUG®, system has even been rapidly embraced by the European community as a part of their "Passive Safety Revolution".

Many state departments of transportation (DOTs) are still just becoming familiar with the recent publication from AASHTO - Standard Specifications for Structural Supports for Highway Signs, Luminaires and Traffic Signals - 2001. Among other items that make this new guideline from AASHTO significant is what is found within section 12.5.3. This section states the requirements to ensure predictable and safe displacement of the breakaway support. In particular, section 12.5.3 (c) deals with the electrical components of a breakaway structure. This is significant because it is the first time AASHTO has issued guidelines (other than the 1998 Interim specification)

directing designers to utilize electrical disconnects specifically designed to compliment the breakaway pole or structure.

The issuance of this guideline is predicated upon several factors including: 1. Field observations and reports of electrical hazards present in downed poles across the U.S. 2. Reports of lawsuits against DOTs and consultants where resulting hazards from pole knockdowns have been the cause of injury or death.

3. McGraw-Hill's 1996/2003 publication - Highway Engineer's Handbook - where the impending electrical hazard at the site of downed poles is discussed in detail.

4. The recommended change in breakaway support wiring published by the FHWA in the National Highway Institute Highway Safety Appurtenance Course #38034.

An assessment of most states today indicates their current wiring method or system would not comply with the new criteria. Failure to comply with the AASHTO guideline could have several detrimental effects; thus, it is essential each DOT assess their current situation and act accordingly.

CAMERA LOWERING DEVICES MAKING ITS MORE EFFICIENT, MAINTAINABLE AND SAFE MG Squared, Inc. is the original developer and provider of the world's first lowering system exclusively for use with multiple function surveillance (color or black/white) cameras. The system allows a camera (or other ITS device) to be lowered to ground level for safe, simple and fast maintenance. The need for a bucket/lift truck is eliminated. Previously required lane closings, outriggers, crash trucks and cone crews are eliminated.

With the use of the lowering device, designs are no longer limited by location or height. The MG Squared system has been time proven (10+ years) across the USA in the harshest environments.

Anytime an MG lowering system is utilized, a more cost effective and maintainable system is produced. MG Squared is the central provider of this lowering technology to the United States Department of Transportation, United States Department of Defense, Office of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs Service. These systems are also currently used in Australia, South Korea, and Canada with further demand in Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and the Philippines.

Author: Martin A. Maners, III is the Vice President & General Counsel for [MG] Squared, Inc. He has a B.S. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and J.D. from the Cumberland School of Law. Mr. Maners serves as an industry member of AASHTO's Task Force 13 and the ITS America EAC. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Section on Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway and Premises Liability Section. He provides presentations on roadway safety technology for Highway Agencies worldwide. www.mgsquared.com

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Intelligent Highways

to improve traffic flow and reduce the incidence of crashes and disabled vehicles,” the state DOTs say. “Some ITS technologies are easy to spot: Those closed circuit television cameras you see along the highway, for example, are ITS components. Ditto for dynamic message signs that warn you about hazards up the road. But there’s plenty about ITS that you don’t see: high-tech sensors embedded in the highway, for example. Computers that run mathematical algorithms to pinpoint traffic tie-ups. And a rapidly expanding wireless communications network that disseminates critical traffic and weather information among transportation officials, emergency responders, and the general public alike.”

ITS technologies such as these are being deployed around the country, and they’re doing much to reduce congestion and save lives, AASHTO says. In Colorado, the installation of a downhill speed-warning system along a mountainous stretch of I-70 led to a 13 percent drop in tractor-trailer accidents. In Arizona, the synchronization of traffic signals along a major commuting corridor in the Phoenix area boosted travel speeds and decreased crash risk by nearly 7 percent. In California, signal-synchronization projects undertaken along 76 travel corridors across the state decreased the number of “vehicle-hours” of delay by 25 percent. In Texas, the deployment of dynamic message signs, closed-circuit television cameras, and other ITS technologies along 29 miles of highways near San Antonio eased congestion and reduced the number of traffic accidents by nearly 3 percent.

In New Jersey, the implementation of the E-ZPass electronic toll-collection system reduced delay at toll plazas by 85 percent, saving motorists an estimated $19 million in otherwise lost productivity time and $1.5 million in fuel costs every year, AASHTO reported. In New Mexico, the deployment of variable message signs, automated traffic sensors, and other ITS technologies at a freeway construction project in Albuquerque reduced the average clearance time for traffic incidents by 44 percent.

Ramp Metering and Signal Coordination Today, ITS is leveraging operational changes in traffic handling in other ways.

Among these operational improvements is freeway ramp metering. Entrance ramp meters on freeways regulate the flow of traffic into an expressway by using traffic signals. They insert more space between entering vehicles, so those merging vehicles don’t overwhelm and slow the main lane traffic flow, especially after entering traffic is released by an upstream traffic signal. They also reduce the number of entering vehicles on short trips by encouraging them to use parallel or surface streets to avoid the ramp wait time.

Freeway ramp metering works only if the signals are obeyed, in which the steady drip-drip of traffic entering the main “pipe” never bogs down the flow. Further, metering of individual ramps on their own won’t work; an entire system, or at least one freeway, must be metered and working in cohesion to get the pattern of traffic ingress that optimizes capacity.

In TTI’s report, 25 of the urban areas reported ramp metering on some portion of their freeway system in 2003, for a total of 33 percent of the freeway miles. The effect was to reduce delay by 102 million personhours, approximately 5 percent of the freeway delay in those areas.

An older application, traffic signal coordination, also enhances traffic flow by eliminating redundant red lights. Traffic lights that aren’t synchronized can lead to teethgnashing frustration among drivers, unneeded delays on the surface street system, and dangerous red light-running.

“Signal coordination projects have the highest percentage treatment within the urban areas studied because the technology has been proven, the cost is relatively low and the government institutions are familiar with the implementation methods,” the TTI researchers wrote. “The effect of the signal coordination projects was to reduce delay by 11 million person hours, approximately 1 percent of the street delay. While the total effect is relatively modest, the cost is relatively low.”

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Reliability of Commute Time ITS has a big role to play in easing drivers through their daily commute, optimizing system performance. One aspect of time spent commuting – and thus the costs of congestion to individuals and society – is the “reliability” of the commute.

For many trips in congested areas, a commute can be made in a number of minutes, but the driver must allow as much as twice that much time for the trip, just in case congestion is encountered.

How operational technologies can mitigate this “wasted” time due to the unreliability of travel times is described in a September 2005 report by Cambridge Systematics Inc. for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), “Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation.”

AASHTO observes that at the beginning of the decade, some 39,000 miles of highways were routinely congested, based on FHWA figures. Major surface streets were just as congested. About half of the congestion

was recurring, stemming from factors that exist daily, such as deficient roadway capacity for the motorists wishing to use it.

The other half was nonrecurring, that is, stemming from temporary disruptions such as traffic accidents, construction zones, and bad weather. Unreliability of travel time is the result of non-recurring congestion, and is the product of seven root causes, which often interact with one another, this new report says. These are physical bottlenecks, traffic incidents, work zones, weather, traffic control devices, special events, and fluctuations in normal traffic.

Digital billboards, shown here in Cleveland, rotate commercial messages (top) with public service announcements (above), and also can transmit emergency information.

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“Travel time reliability is defined as how much travel times vary over the course of time,” the FHWA report said. “This variability in travel times from one day to the next is due to the fact that underlying conditions vary widely. The seven sources of congestion – especially traffic-influencing ‘events’ such as traffic incidents, weather, and work zones – that contribute to total congestion also conspire to produce unreliable travel times, because these are never the same from day-to-day.”

Cambridge says that a multi-layered approach can mitigate congestion: adding more base capacity, operating the existing system more efficiently, and encouraging alternate travel and land use patterns.

“All of these strategies can lead to a reduction in congestion, but it is operations strategies that have the most dramatic effect on reliability, because they target the sources of unreliable travel directly,” Cambridge says in the FHWA report. “Operations strategies focus on the traffic-influencing events that both raise the general level of congestion and increase unreliable travel.”

ITS technologies already are working, the FHWA report said.

For example, in Michigan, the Road Commission of Oakland County’s FAST-TRAC (Faster and Safer Travel through Traffic Routing and Advanced Controls) system was launched in 1992.

The key element of FAST-TRAC is the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS), an advanced adaptive signal system with the capability to adjust signals on an individual intersection, corridor, and area-wide basis. “The system detects real-time demand on the highways and continuously adjusts signal timing to meet the demand,” Cambridge said. “The result is that FAST-TRAC reduces congestion by eliminating unnecessary stops and providing green phases where the demand is highest.”

In the megacity located between Milwaukee, Wis., and Gary, Ind., including all of Chicago, a real-time freeway monitoring system is operational and can be accessed via the Internet. The program is coordinated with WisDOT’s statewide SmartWays program, where the ramp meters keep the freeway operating at steady flow for longer periods of time than otherwise could be expected, and where service patrols and cameras allow for quicker identification of and response to incidents, a major source of unreliable travel. In the meantime, real-time traffic times and color-coded congestion are displayed on the Web site of the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee Corridor Coalition (GCM). View the GCM Web site at http://www.gcmtravel.com/.

The September 2005 report contains other examples of operational solutions, in Maryland, Washington State, and the new Katy Freeway expansion in Houston. Download the report at http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/congestion_report.

VII: The Next Revolution Now, a new focus of ITS implementation just gathering steam soon may affect vehicle operation in relation to the roadway on which it is traveling. The new focus on Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) will make roads safer by deploying advanced vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-infrastructure communications that could

Wireless in-pavement permanent traffic analyzers such as the Groundhog units seen here are another facet of ITS technology. They provide real-time vehicle volume counts; information on vehicle speed, length, and classification, as well as whether the road surface is wet or dry; and a chemical index of anti-icing materials used. keep vehicles from leaving the road and enhance their safe movement through intersections.

Some 21,000 of the 43,000 deaths annually on America’s highways are caused by roadway departure and intersection-related incidents, AASHTO reports. Now the automobile industry, the U.S. DOT, ITS America, and AASHTO have joined forces to explore the feasibility of a far more ambitious vision: equipping all new cars and trucks with mobility- and safety-enhancing “intelligent vehicle” technologies, while at the same time outfitting roadways and intersections throughout America with ITS technologies.

Essentially, the “smart” vehicles would be linked to the “smart” highway infrastructure (as well as each other) via a nationwide, wireless communications network, with enormous potential for reducing crashes and enhancing the mobility of the roadway system.

For nearly 15 years, the ITS movement has hypothesized that applications such as intersection collision avoidance could best be accomplished through sophisticated vehicle-infrastructure and vehicle-vehicle communication. During the past two years, this vision has been under intense exploration as part of the U.S. DOT’s VII major initiative.

The aim of the VII initiative is to deploy and enable a communications infrastructure that supports vehicle-to-infrastructure, as well as vehicle-to-vehicle, communications for a variety of vehicle safety applications and transportation operations. Additionally, VII will enable the deployment of a variety of applications that support private interests, including those of vehicle manufacturers.

A public-private VII Coalition has been formed and will determine if the infrastructure deployment can be synchronized with the vehicle integration. Based on its planned development and exploration, the VII Coalition will not render its final decision for a nationwide rollout until the 2008 timeframe.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Intelligent Highways

Saving Lives and Time: VII Applications If two vehicles are approaching an intersection at a right angle, they can communicate with the infrastructure – and each other – to presumably stop themselves from potentially crashing. But so many other potential benefits are possible by opening up this channel of communications. Here are a few examples from ITS: • Curve Speed Warning and Lane Departure Warning are currently being done with sensors on the vehicle only, but could be improved with high-quality maps made possible by a significant increase in vehicle probe data.

• The ability to transmit dynamic work zone signage directly into the vehicle (known as in-vehicle signing) can improve the driver’s awareness of work zones and prevent accidents, or even provide variable speed limits to smooth out congestion.

• Detection of roadway hazards such as potholes, road weather problems, or even sight distance and design problems can all be potentially identified by vehicle sensors and shared with managers of the roadway faster than is possible today.

• Traffic flow through signals could be made more efficient through the use of probe data that would allow more frequent or improved re-timing of the signal, or dynamic control of the signal based on real-time traffic counts or queues at the intersection.

VII: How It Would Work The U.S. DOT describes how Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration would work to improve highway safety through crash prevention, and envisions how VII would enable more effective operation of

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[MG]2 INC. PHOTO

TV monitoring of highways provides instant traffic information. Here, workers in Providence, R.I., service a camera on a pylon using an integral raising/lowering device.

the state and local transportation systems through collection of valuable information about the real-time status of the roadways.

Vehicles would be equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) unit and a dedicated short range communications (DSRC) transceiver, called the on board unit (OBU), DOT says. Vehicles already have a large array of sensors that are necessary for operation and maintenance; these vehicles have been measuring the outside air temperature near the surface of the roadway; they know when traction control or antilock braking (ABS) is activated; they know when it is raining; they even know when the road is rough.

These data, when coupled with additional information provided

by GPS – the vehicle’s exact position, speed, acceleration, and direction – would be an invaluable resource to state and local transportation operations, DOT says. Data collected by vehicles can be called probe data.

Data collected via VII would be completely anonymous. There would be no vehicle or other personal identification associated with the data. To gain access to this anonymous data, the roadway infrastructure would have to be equipped with DSRC transceivers, called roadside units (RSU).

Perhaps a major portion of – or maybe all – signalized intersections in America would be equipped with an RSU, DOT says. In addition, urban freeways would have RSUs frequently spaced to enable the gathering of this probe data. Similarly, the rural Interstate system would be equipped, but probably at less frequent intervals, such as at interchanges.

The operational concept would have vehicles communicating with intersections and with each other to prevent crashes. In addition, a vehicle would be transmitting the anonymous on-board sensor data to an RSU every time it passed an RSU. Since RSUs are not contiguous, a vehicle would store time samples of the data it collected between RSUs and then transmit these data samples as it passed the RSU hot spot.

The anonymous data received at an RSU would be sent to an aggregation point from which it would then be forwarded to authorized subscribers. Each aggregation point would receive data from several thousand RSUs. All data would be organized and ordered by the geographic coordinates from the vehicles and would be available to authorized subscribers.

Thus, in the end, a state or local DOT could subscribe and receive anonymous data from virtually every vehicle operating within its purview, whether it is on a freeway or an arterial road.

In the next few years leading up to the 2008 decision on whether or not to roll out a nationwide VII system, we will see test bed activities throughout the country that will be evaluating a number of different types of communication systems, applications, and approaches to integration.

In the meantime, ITS America is expanding its VII activities to assist members in better understanding the extraordinary opportunities VII will create, and to help identify current and emerging VII applications within the ITS sector. ITS America is developing a series of “white papers” on VII applications, and they can be viewed at http://www.itsa.org.

Guest Editorial

Our Transportation Future – the Next 50 Years

By Neil Schuster

This year, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our Interstate highway system, transportation professionals are working on what could become our mobility and safety vision for the next 50 years. A broad range of intelligent transportation systems will enable us to envision and achieve a bold future that will bring us unprecedented safety, mobility, and connectivity.

The Interstate system connected America physically, and now, ITS technologies allow us to connect America virtually so that while we travel, we will be connected to virtually anyone in America. We will come to expect that we are fully protected at the same time that we are fully connected, and it will take champions, legislators, and policy makers to articulate that vision and make it happen. Joining ITS technologies – information collection and distribution, telecommunications, advanced driving systems, location-based services and electronics – to our transportation system will enable us to transform transportation, how we finance it, develop it, manage and price it, and consume it. Through ITS, we will be able to achieve ITS America’s vision – a future with zero fatalities and zero delays.

Fulfilling the need for a national ITS system that is both economically sound and environmentally efficient requires a new way of looking at -- and solving -- our transportation problems.

The decades-old panacea of simply building more and more pavement neither solves our transportation problems nor meets Congress’ broad vision of an efficient transportation system.

Traffic accidents and congestion take a heavy toll in lives, lost productivity, and wasted energy. According to government statistics, the drain on our economy is $300 billion a year. ITS enables people and goods to move more safely and efficiently through a state-of-the-art, intermodal transportation system. For literally pennies on the dollar, ITS investments help us reduce that $300 billion cost.

At the same time, intelligent transportation systems can contribute to the lessening of dependence on foreign oil, as called for by President Bush in his January 2006 State of the Union address, by helping to reduce congestion in major cities, and providing travel- and weather-related real-time information to consumers and businesses in order for them to arrive at their destination in the shortest amount of time.

With the passage last year of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users (SAFETEALU) legislation, ITS is no longer a “niche” program; instead, it has

become a part of the mainstream in transportation funding, with over $20 billion in special projects dedicated to, or that include, ITS. We at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, better known as ITS America, wholeheartedly applaud SAFETEA-LU’s expanded eligibility for ITS deployment under existing programs.

This marks a successful graduation from TEA-21, where ITS was found primarily in Title V (research).

In the meantime, an exciting new ITS program – the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) – is taking shape, and ITS America is at the forefront.

For nearly 15 years, the U.S. Department of Transportation and ITS America have hypothesized that applications such as intersection collision avoidance could be best accomplished through sophisticated vehicle-infrastructure and vehicle-vehicle communication.

The aim of the VII initiative is to deploy and enable a communications infrastructure that supports vehicle-to-infrastructure, as well as vehicle-to-vehicle, communications for a variety of vehicle-safety applications and transportation operations. Additionally, VII will enable the deployment of a variety of applications that support private interests, including those of vehicle manufacturers.

Last fall, ITS America and its members successfully demonstrated VII applications – vehicles and the roadside communicating with each other to deliver mobility and safety applications – on the streets of San Francisco and in an off-street setting. The demonstration, a $25 million product of the efforts of 40 private- and publicsector partners, took place during our 2005 World Congress. More than 7,100 attendees had an opportunity to experience VII applications and the future of transportation.

ITS America’s role in the VII major initiative continues to gain stature as we bring the application providers to the VII table, and provide ITS business interests a voice in the further development of VII. We are conducting research into VII issues for our members, to assist them in understanding how and when VII will develop. And, we are providing a place for a wide variety of stakeholders not currently engaged in VII to gain knowledge while also being able to submit feedback.

ITS America marks its 15th anniversary in 2006. I invite you to learn more about ITS and ITS America by visiting our newlydesigned Web site, www.itsa.org, and see what ITS can do for America and for you.

Neil Schuster is president and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

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How to quiet the ride

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Their very structure absorbs noise that is generated by car and truck tires.

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There are three main reasons: 1) Asphalt costs less during initial construction; 2) Asphalt requires less maintenance; 3) And asphalt pavements can last for generations when properly designed and constructed.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Asphalt Pavements

NEW ASPHALT PAVEMENTS FOR A NEW CENTURY

By Tom Kuennen New technologies in asphalt provide new options in meeting durability, environmental, and cost challenges

A

A bituminous Perpetual Pavement section is placed on Ohio's I-77.

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FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS OF OHIO PHOTO

s the Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways marks its 50th anniversary, new, durable asphalt pavement designs are revolutionizing Interstate and National Highway System pavements. A new generation of asphalt pavement design is standing up to unprecedented traffic loads and is changing how government transportation agencies specify hot mix asphalt (HMA) and how asphalt contractors place it.

These new mix and pavement designs include Superpave®, the performance-driven asphalt pavement designs developed in the United States; stone-matrix asphalt (SMA), a super-durable design imported from Germany; polymer-modified open-graded friction course (OGFC) asphalt pavements, which reduce tire spray and attenuate pavement noise; the new Perpetual Pavements, an HMA pavement structure design that competes with portland cement concrete (PCC); and the new “warm” asphalt mixes, which will quell energy costs and reduce potential emissions.

Here’s a look at how asphalt pavements are changing at the start of the 21st century.

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Asphalt Pavements

Shift to Performance Specs The most significant change in HMA has been a shift from conventional “Marshall” mix designs, in which the liquid asphalt’s viscosity or resistance to penetration by a weighted needle is the basis of the “recipe” for an asphalt mix, to performance-related Superpave binder mix designs, in which different liquid asphalts are matched with select aggregates to perform durably given projected traffic loadings and extremes of climate.

In other words, the basis of the mix design has changed from a simple test of the liquid asphalt’s “thickness” to a system that takes into account the chemistry of the liquid asphalt and variability of constituent aggregates, and engineers them to perform under local traffic and local weather extremes. From scratch, the paving mix is designed to stand up to the twin punishments of traffic and weather, which vary tremendously from project to project, region to region.

This shift to Superpave has stimulated a profusion of new types of lab and field mix testing equipment, new full-scale accelerated pavement testing facilities, and has supported a new class of technically trained lab technicians. A growing database on HMA mix performance is being used every day to make mix design decisions and improve long-term HMA performance.

Superpave is an acronym for SUperior PERforming Asphalt PAVEments and was the No. 1 product of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP, 1988-1993), a five-year, $150 million program paid for by the state departments of transportation. Nearly one-third of the $150 million was spent on asphalt research in an effort to develop performance-based specifications that would relate material properties of the binder and the mix to field performance.

The funds were provided by each of the 50 states via a 0.25 percent “take-down” from the federal-aid highway funds to carry out the research program during the five-year period covered by 1987’s Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA ‘87).

Basically, liquid asphalt is what remains of a barrel of crude oil after gasoline, plastic feedstock, naptha, and other lighter hydrocarbons have been extracted during refining. Because crude oil is sourced all around the world, its chemistry varies widely. It’s now recognized that performance-related mix designs like Superpave may require enhancement of the liquid asphalt to meet the demands of traffic and climate, so the performance of today’s liquid asphalts is being bolstered by a new generation of asphalt modifiers, thus bettering the performance of Superpave mixes, OGFCs, and thin-lift overlays.

There are three elements to Superpave mix design: an asphalt binder specification geared to pavement loadings and local climate; a volumetric mix design and analysis system; and mix analysis tests and a performance prediction protocol including historical climatic database, software, and environmental and performance models.

Volumetric properties of Superpave include its percentage of air voids, voids in the mineral aggregate (VMA), and voids filled with asphalt (VFA). Superpave’s volumetric mix design system balances

aggregates, asphalt, and voids with the ultimate goal of producing durable mixes that resist rutting.

Superpave is different because the type of Superpave design used depends on the project’s anticipated traffic loadings and regional average historical climate. There are four levels or families of mixes for Superpave, depending on the anticipated loading, and classified according to the number of motions or gyrations the mix receives to compaction in the Superpave gyratory compactor lab test device.

Level 1 mixes have a design compaction level of 50 gyrations per specimen in the gyratory compactor and are used for low-volume pavements of under 300,000 equivalent single-axle loads (ESALs). Level 2 mixes need 75 gyrations and are used for 0.3 million to 3 million ESALs; Level 3 mixes, 100 gyrations, 3 million to 30 million ESALs; and Level 4 mixes, 125 gyrations for in excess of 30 million ESALs. With the implementation of Superpave performance specs by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) beginning in January 2006, all states of the union will have adopted Superpave as a standard spec, if not the only spec allowed for state DOT paving projects. And Superpave use is spreading through municipal and county specs as well.

SMA = Super-Strong Pavements Complementing Superpave is SMA, stone-matrix asphalt. SMA is a “gap-graded” mix design that brings together strong, coarse aggregate and a high content of as much as 6 to 8 percent of asphalt cement. The gap-graded design has fewer fines than conventional HMA, about 15 percent of aggregate weight. The outcome is a strong HMA mix with a stone-on-stone skeleton that easily resists rutting.

There are drawbacks to this structure, however. Because the gap-graded mix lacks medium-sized aggregate, conventional lowpenetration-grade asphalt used in other mixes can drain out of the coarse aggregate skeleton. To avoid this “drain-down,” SMA mixes use cellulose fibers or other modifiers to hold the binder in place.

The acronym, SMA, is derived from the German term splittmastixasphalt; the Americanized “stone-matrix asphalt” means much the same thing. While other central and northern European countries claim to have invented SMA mix — as do some Americans — the design appears to have been first used in Germany in the 1960s to resist damage from studded tires. Its virtues soon proved to include exceptional resistance to shoving and rutting as well.

Since SMA’s introduction in 1990, half the states are using SMA in wearing surface course applications. The states of Georgia and Maryland, which are taking an active role in SMA development, are increasing their use of SMA and are alerting other states.

Under equal conditions, SMA outlasts Superpave, with a life expectancy of anywhere from 20 to 30 percent longer than a conventional dense-graded HMA pavement. However, it’s more

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Past, Present and Future of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Transportation Network

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Asphalt Pavements

expensive than Superpave, by as much as 10 to 30 percent, to as much as 50 percent higher, by some estimates, than traditional HMA mixes.

Quieter OGFCs Today, HMA open-graded friction courses (OGFCs) are providing safer pavements through enhanced surface drainage and by reducing pavement noise.

These drainable OGFCs offer road agencies a better-performing, driver-friendly pavement with an “open” aggregate structure (without fines) in which larger-sized aggregate is held in place by polymer-modified and fiber-modified performance-graded liquid asphalts, but at a 30 to 40 percent cost premium over conventional asphalt mixes.

A new wave of OGFC pavements being built here and in Europe have considerably higher air void contents than the first generation of OGFCs in the 1970s, today in the range of 17 percent to 22 percent.

The open structure of voids allows water to drain right through the driving or friction course to an impervious intermediate course below, and out into roadside ditches. The result is the elimination of tire spray and hydroplaning.

Because noise generated at the tire/pavement interface is attenuated within the spaces between the aggregate, they are significantly quieter pavements. The noise reduction can be on the order of three to five decibels, representing at least a 30 percent decrease in volume. And the frequencies of tire whine are reduced as well, producing a less annoying sound.

The Arizona Department of Transportation is nearing the end of a three-year, $34 million project to surface about 115 miles of Phoenix-area freeways with asphalt-rubber open-graded pavement, to provide smoother rides for motorists and quieter neighborhoods for those who live adjacent to the roads.

Research from the Texas DOT supports the use of open-graded asphalt pavements in that state. There, a recent asphalt rubber “porous friction course” overlay of a concrete interstate in San Antonio substantially reduced noise levels, improved its ride quality by 61 percent, and increased the skid resistance by 200 percent, according to Texas DOT. However, in addition to their cost premium, OGFC pavements can clog with roadway fines over time, reducing their drainage qualities. Due to their higher cost and tendency to clog, engineers suggest OGFCs be used on high-volume, high-speed roadways such as Interstate highways, where their higher cost can be rationalized, and where the suctioning action of the tires on the pavement tend to pull detritus from the porous lift. Open-graded pavements on lower-volume, slower-trafficked local roads have been less successful.

Porous Asphalt for Parking Lots New “porous asphalt” pavement designs -- not to be confused with OGFCs -- permit quick drainage of storm water to catchment areas and help remove roadway pollution from the storm water

Period advertising from the asphalt industry stressed that asphalt is the preferred choice for overlays, and urged building roads of it to begin with. stream. As such, they can help local government agencies meet EPA Phase II storm water pollution requirements now in effect for smaller governments.

While not appropriate for freeway or even local road use, they provide passive water treatment by absorption of runoff into adjacent soils, where microbes decompose these nonpoint surface pollutants – such as latent oils, greases, and other materials -- before they can reach groundwater or surface waters. Thus they also assist in recharge of groundwater aquifers.

In 2004, in Lenexa, Kan., city public works officials built a porous asphalt parking lot in an environmentally sensitive area near a constructed wetland, a 325-acre lake, and a stream restoration project, all part of a new city park. There, above a reservoir, an underdrain system was placed below a 4-inch-thick, open-graded mix with a polymer-modified PG 76-22 binder.

“Soon after we finished the project there was a heavy downpour,” said Larry O’Donnell, vice president of O’Donnell & Sons Construction. “I was impressed to see how water ran right through the porous pavement, just as it was supposed to.”

Perpetual Pavements: The Future?

As the 21st century began and the HMA industry contemplated how to make more durable asphalt roads last for decades without major reconstruction, it also considered the competitive situation between HMA and portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements.

Asphalt promoters had long been stung by the assumption that HMA was cheap but not long-lasting, and that PCC was more expensive but longer-lasting. Could the industry perfect an asphalt

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pavement design that would last as long or longer than a PCC pavement, and still be cost-competitive with PCC? The answer was the Perpetual Pavement concept, launched at the turn of the century by the Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA) as a strong pavement structure design to compete with PCC. The Asphalt Institute, the National Asphalt Pavement Association, and the State Asphalt Pavement Associations, an umbrella group representing local associations in 36 states, comprise the APA, whose mission is promotion of asphalt and the Perpetual Pavement philosophy.

Perpetual Pavements are designed with thick layers of HMA of different mix formats, with a sacrificial driving course on top. This driving or friction course is intended to be periodically cold-milled and overlaid with more HMA to restore condition. The surface can be cold-milled and repaved at night, minimizing traffic congestion and its impact on commuters and road workers.

Perpetual Pavements are designed and built from the bottom up, with a lower layer designed to resist bottom-up fatigue cracking. The middle layer uses an asphalt mix designed to support anticipated traffic loads, and the top layer may be of any HMA mix design.

“We now have the capability of designing the most cost-effective mix using local materials, selecting the appropriate mix type for the traffic conditions and environment,” said National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) President Mike Acott. “Through an understanding of the interrelationships between material characterization, pavement thickness, fatigue, and rut resistance, we are able to develop Perpetual Pavement structural designs that result in the lowest life cycle cost.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM KUENNEN

Asphalt Pavements

Sound Engineering Principles When fully implemented, Perpetual Pavements will perform with reliability because they are based on sound engineering principles.

These principles are articulated in a concept paper titled “Perpetual Pavements,” by Jim Huddleston, P.E., Asphalt Pavement Association of Oregon; Mark Buncher, Ph.D., P.E., The Asphalt Institute; and David Newcomb, Ph.D., P.E., National Asphalt Pavement Association.

With Perpetual Pavements, typically there are three asphalt layers: • a durable, fatigue-resistant base layer; • a rut-resistant and durable intermediate layer; and • a rut-resistant, impermeable, and wear-resistant surface layer.

The materials and mix design used in each layer comprise the key to successful Perpetual Pavements. With Perpetual Pavements, the material in each asphalt layer is specifically designed to resist pavement distresses. The outcome is a thinner overall section than those utilizing a conventional long-life design.

With this design, the potential for traditional fatigue cracking may be reduced, and pavement distress may be confined to the upper layer or surface of the structure, Huddleston et. al. write.

“Thus, when surface distress reaches a critical level, an economical solution is to remove the top layer or surface course and replace it.

Top: Perpetual Pavement is placed on Interstate 70 in eastern Illinois.

Above: "Warm" asphalt mix is placed during a 2004 demonstration for the asphalt industry.

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

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Asphalt Pavements

“Most pavement design procedures do not consider the characteristics of each pavement layer relating to fatigue, rutting and temperature cracking,” the engineers write. “Since each pavement layer has its own part to play in performance, a new structural design method is needed to analyze each pavement layer. The mechanisticempirical approach meets this need.”

With mechanistic design, they write, “knowing the critical points in the pavement structure, one can design against certain types of failure or distress by choosing the right materials and layer thicknesses. In the case of a perpetual pavement, this consists of providing enough stiffness in the upper pavement layers to prevent rutting and enough total pavement thickness and flexibility in the lowest layer to avoid fatigue cracking from the bottom of the pavement structure.”

Recycling Old Pavements The easy recyclability of HMA is transforming the HMA industry, and reuse of aged asphalt has become common throughout the country.

Long before environmental issues became popular, asphalt pavements were being recycled as granular aggregate for road base, as embankment fill, and in pavement driving and base courses.

Today, specialized milling machines plane off aged, cracked asphalt pavement in varying depths and widths, and convey this reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) to dump trucks that haul to stockpiles. From there, it’s reused as inexpensive road base, added to virgin HMA as a tested material, used for driveways, bike paths, recreational trails, and much more.

With approximately 80 percent of asphalt pavement removed from resurfacing or widening projects reused in new road construction, asphalt pavement is the nation’s most widely recycled product, according to APA. Use of RAP saves resources, time, and cost, as those existing aggregates don’t require extraction, loading, crushing, screening, or hauling, among other things.

In making HMA, the RAP then may be further crushed, proportioned, heated, and blended with a small amount of new materials, then mixed to meet pavement specs. RAP can be incorporated into HMA in both drum mix and batch plants.

RAP’s asphalt content varies from 3 to 7 percent by weight. The RAP asphalt tends to be harder than new asphalt binder, because of the effects of prolonged oxidation and weathering. This residual asphalt in the RAP may be reused by addition of rejuvenating chemicals, or heated and combined with fresh liquid asphalt at the plant.

As a result, RAP now is accepted in asphalt paving mixtures as an aggregate substitute and as a portion of the binder in nearly all 50 states. Substitution rates of 10 to 50 percent or more, depending on state specifications, are normally introduced in pavements, and recently developed technology has even made it possible to recycle 90 to 100 percent RAP in hot mix. And experience so far shows that RAP can be used in Superpave mixes predictably and reliably, so long as the unique properties of the RAP used are tested and known.

There is great interest among contractors in new asphalt technologies.

Here, hundreds of contractors view a "warm" HMA mix demonstration following the 2004 World of Asphalt show in Nashville.

Foamed Asphalt Bases Yet another application of recycled asphalt is foamed asphalt, a cost-effective way of in-place stabilization of road bases that’s gaining interest from coast to coast. Foamed or “expanded” asphalt is created by carefully injecting a predetermined amount of water into hot penetration-grade asphalt in the mixing chamber of a pavement recycling/remixing unit, and offers a cost-effective alternative for road base stabilization from asphalt emulsions or cement slurry.

The expanded asphalt has a resulting high surface area available for bonding with the aggregate, leading to a stable road base using 100 percent of the existing in-place materials.

The benefit is substantial cost savings over use of asphalt emulsions for base stabilization, and complete elimination of the cure or “break” period. While foamed bases usually are topped with hot mix asphalt or seal coat, they can bear traffic almost

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Asphalt Pavements

immediately after grading and compaction, including heavy trucks.

Foamed asphalt is produced by adding small amounts of water (approximately 2 to 3 percent by mass of asphalt) to hot liquid asphalt, typically 320 to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The liquid asphalt used for the process can be straight penetration- or performance-graded. When injected into the hot liquid asphalt, the water evaporates abruptly, thus causing extremely rapid expansion of the liquid asphalt in the saturated steam. Typically, the liquid asphalt expands to 15 to 20 times its original volume. The intensity and effectiveness of the foaming process can most effectively be governed by controlled operation of the basic physical conditions, such as pressure and temperature. Precise addition of water allows control of the rate and amount of expansion.

When using foamed asphalt as a binding agent, the content of fines in the aggregate is very important. The foaming process results in a surface expansion of the liquid asphalt and a simultaneous reduction of its viscosity. The dispersion properties of the liquid asphalt are greatly

increased, ensuring that the fines (0.075 sieve) in the aggregates are coated.

This filler and the foamed asphalt together produce a mortar, which binds the coarse aggregates. On the projects where recycling depth is limited, omitting the existing road base, insufficient fines are generated (10 to 20 percent 0.075 minimum) and it’s necessary to add fines, as dry portland cement, lime, fly ash, or a slurry of the same.

Warm Mixes Reach the United States Another new “twist” in asphalt mix chemistry that is gaining interest -- if not market share -- is another import from Europe, so-called “warm mix” technology.

Warm asphalt mixes were introduced in a big way to the United States at an open house and demonstration following the World of Asphalt expo in Nashville in 2004.

There, warm mixes were created in-plant and placed before hundreds of contractors and engineers.

With warm mixes, asphalt contractors and specifiers are getting closer to a low-

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WIRTGEN AMERICA INC. PHOTO

Milled RAP is the No. 1 recycled material in the United States.

emissions asphalt mix that should make siting and “permitting” of asphalt plants easier, and may allow construction of pavements in colder weather because contractors may no longer fear critical loss of temperature in the cold. The result may be a longer construction season extending into the winter in some regions of the country.

They may permit trucking of loads of asphalt over longer distances, without fear of critical loss of temperature, allowing contractors to expand market areas.

That’s because warm asphalt mixes are heated to a temperature well below the 300-plus degree Fahrenheit temperatures of conventional HMA. This lower temperature has the potential for reduced plant emissions in different stages of production, longer compaction times in the field, and reduced energy consumption in the plant.

Warm mixes can allow faster construction of pavements made up of deep lifts of asphalt, for example intersections, which need to be opened as soon as possible.

Because the mix is not so hot to begin with, less time is required to cool the mix before the next lift is placed.

A new warm-mix additive sourced from the United States, Evotherm, is claimed to be compacted at temperatures as low as 140 degree Fahrenheit. This product is undergoing testing at the test track of the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) at Auburn University.

However, this convenience comes at an added cost. In 2006, the benefits of warmmix technology will be available only through proprietary products -- sometimes only through exclusive licensing -- and command a premium in cost per ton, depending on volume, of as much as $3 to $4 by one estimate.

NAPA seeks to answer a variety of questions regarding warm mixes, including whether they can be opened to traffic as quickly as conventional asphalt pavements, a major advantage of asphalt.

NAPA asks how will they perform in the long term, and if the European-sourced warm mixes will perform under North American climate extremes. Study continues at NCAT in Alabama.

Guest Editorial

The Asphalt Institute’s Historic Role in the Interstate Highway System

By Bernie McCarthy, P.E.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, created a dedicated source of funding for the Interstate highway system. The funding was established through the federal gas tax and thus began arguably the greatest public works project ever undertaken anywhere in the world. A 41,000-mile Interstate system was the heart of the program that would connect major population centers in the United States.

From its inception in 1919, the Asphalt Institute has been a spokesman for the asphalt industry through programs of engineering, research, and education. The Asphalt Institute’s Board of Directors recognized that asphalt should be a major factor in Interstate construction. The Institute began to educate state highway engineers on the advantages of asphalt paving and initiated a series of meetings in each state to present asphalt’s cost effectiveness, safety, life expectancy, and maintenance attributes as the most efficient choice.

The Asphalt Institute Board of Directors also established special funds for a communication program that included both national and regional advertising campaigns and for the addition of field engineers to promote the use of asphalt pavements for Interstate highways. The advertising program was designed to reach both general public and engineering audiences. General public ads, for example, were carried in Life magazine, U.S. News and World Report, the Wall Street Journal and CBS radio. These ads informed motorists about the many benefits asphalt pavements provide to make their ride comfortable and enjoyable. Engineering audience ads were carried in publications such as Engineering News Record, ASCE Civil Engineering, American Public Works, Roads and Streets, and local construction journals. They featured the design advantages of asphalt, the favorable economics when compared to alternative pavement types, the speed and ease of construction, and the ability to maintain an asphalt pavement much more readily than an alternate type. These ads served multiple purposes by depicting current solutions and practices while also providing design engineers a basis to compare their own designs for traffic, terrain, soil type, environment, and materials indigenous to their location.

The complement of Asphalt Institute Field Engineers was increased to essentially locate a Field Engineer in each state to provide extensive educational programs on a whole gamut of topics pertaining to asphalt pavements to assist in the development and construction of this type of pavement.

Shortly after the Interstate construction program began, the AASHO Road Tests were conducted in Ottawa, Ill. The Institute created a Special Projects section to analyze and transfer the technology developed on the Road Test. Rising out of that analysis came validation of the Full-Depth and Deep Strength Thickness Design concepts for asphalt pavements that were then promoted by the Asphalt Institute. Prior to this time, thin asphalt

pavement layers were placed on top of a thick granular base. With the advent of these Full-Depth and Deep Strength philosophies, the thickness of the typical asphalt section increased three- to four-fold and proved to be a far superior pavement.

An additional problem, still true in some cases today, is that traffic projections for the design life of the pavements and the percentage of trucks were greatly underestimated. One distinct advantage of an asphalt pavement is that it lends itself to staged construction. This advantage was promoted by the Institute to accommodate these traffic projection differentials.

The Asphalt Institute Laboratory was a major contributor in developing mix designs for various state highway departments to handle the increased traffic loads experienced on the Interstates. Many states adopted the Institute Type IV mixes for their high-traffic pavements.

As the Interstate program moved forward, many significant changes occurred within the industry that enhanced the application of asphalt pavements, and many construction techniques evolved. Institute engineers monitored these developments and incorporated this technology into educational programs for the benefit of the industry.

In the 21st century, our beloved Interstate system faces serious challenges. Basically complete, the system now requires maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. Lanes are being added and new truck lanes proposed that create added stress to the pavement’s structure. Results from the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) of the 1990s are being implemented in the form of Superpave Mix Designs, which also include the use of Performance Graded binders. Today, the Asphalt Institute serves as a significant leader in this ongoing effort of support through its many educational programs, direct engineering assistance, extensive research and laboratory testing efforts.

Not surprisingly, our industry’s technological advances over the last several years clearly demonstrate that today’s asphalt pavements are far superior to those constructed in the past. Better understanding of design principles, better materials, higher performing binders, and a wide variety of mix types give the engineer the right tools for the best pavement in any situation.

Congratulations to all involved in bringing the Interstate program to where it is today. Your contribution shaped America in many ways and demonstrated the resolve to build a bright future for a grateful nation — one founded on freedom and one that treasures mobility. The Asphalt Institute looks forward to helping shape and build the new vision for our Interstate’s next 50 years.

Bernie McCarthy worked with the Asphalt Institute for more than 35 years, served as its vice president before retirement, and still serves as an Asphalt Institute consultant.

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Concrete’s Plan for the Future

Research Will

REVOLUTIONIZE

Concrete Pavement

DESIGN

By Tom Kuennen New concrete ‘Road Map’ offers a path to sustainable concrete of the future

Precast concrete U-beams made of highperformance concrete (HPC) await placement on the first HPC bridge project – in 1994 on Louetta Road Overpass over Texas 249 northwest of Houston.

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TEXAS DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION PHOTO

T

he announcement of a 10-year, 12-track research program for portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements in January 2006 is only the latest milestone on a path to long-lived, durable, environmentally sustainable concrete pavements for the new century.

The Concrete Pavement Road Map is a strategic plan for the spending of some $250 million on concrete pavement research over the next decade. And it’s joined by the recent establishment at Iowa State University at Ames of a National Concrete Pavement Technology Center – dubbed the CP Tech Center – which will oversee research being undertaken for the Road Map, and other research.

Concrete research also will be spurred by the new Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU, 2005), the Innovative Pavement Research and Deployment Program of which provides $4.1 million in each of six years through 2009 for research to improve concrete pavement for the National Highway System.

SAFETEA-LU also provides funds to research improved aggregates used in highways of the NHS, and also provides money for research on alkali-silica reactivity (ASR), a long-term chemical reaction that can destroy concrete when reactive aggregates are used.

And the CP Tech Center parallels an exciting concrete technology transfer program launched by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2003 to promote high-performance concrete pavements, called the Concrete Pavement Technology Program (CPTP). Funded

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA PHOTOS

Concrete’s Plan for the Future

by SAFETEA’s predecessor legislation, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), it’s undertaking research, product development, and market outreach of technology that will help end users improve long-term performance – and lower costs – of concrete pavement.

In the meantime, the CP Tech Center will not be undertaking research by itself, but coordinating and supervising research activity, with a goal of facilitating construction of more durable concrete pavements. The center was conducting over $8 million in research projects prior to establishment of the Road Map this January, and the center is looking forward to some $10 million of the concrete research funds provided by SAFETEA-LU to help it leverage funding from other sources.

“The idea of the Road Map came from the industry,” said Gerald F. Voight, P.E., president and CEO, American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA). “The federal government, states, and private industry had ongoing research into concrete pavements, but none of that was coordinated in any way, and this led to delays in implementing new technologies. As a shared activity between federal, state, the academia, and the private sector, the Road Map will break down that barrier.”

Also, the Road Map will help both public- and private-sector stakeholders get their arms around all the different tasks and issues that need to be addressed to create a consolidated system for concrete pavement research.

“The Road Map brings all the different research needs and brings them to one place, including technical issues, down to business systems that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with past research programs,” Voight said. “The Road Map will produce a forward-looking, integrated system for design, construction, materials, and preservation of concrete pavements. And because it will be integrated, when a change is made to one focus area, we will understand the impact it will have on the other areas.”

“From the get-go, the industry has been shaping the contents of the Road Map,” said Leif Wathne, P.E., ACPA director of highways. “It truly has been a partnership between the FHWA, state DOTs, and industry. The Road Map will help optimize our concrete paving practices, from bottom to top, including surface characteristics. It also will help us improve our mix designs, especially using industrial byproducts, which will become more of a priority as we move into more environmentally friendly practices, including recycled concrete, recycled aggregate, or even recycled asphalt pavement.”

Elements of the Road Map Research problem statements are essays from industry stakeholders that describe technical or application issues that need research and resolution, and are solicited to shape the direction of research in the highway community. The new Concrete Pavement Road Map has 12 tracks of research combining more than 250 research problem statements from both the public and private sectors.

Concrete afflicted with alkali-silica reactivity (ASR) – from inadvertent use of reactive aggregates found in virtually every state – exhibits characteristic internal expansion, which cracks the concrete and results in ultimate failure. The bottom photo shows ASR fluorescing under lab conditions, compared to the top photo, which shows the same concrete under normal light. SAFETEA-LU contains funding explicitly aimed at fighting ASR in concrete.

“The concrete industry spent a great deal of time all around the country, participating in outreach efforts,” said E. Tom Cackler, P.E., director, CP Tech Center. “To meet the challenges of the future, we needed a guide for our investments and research dollars, and we needed to promote cooperation in a common plan.”

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

FHWA PHOTO

Concrete’s Plan for the Future

The first of the Road Map’s tracks is a Performance-Based Concrete Pavement Mix Design System, resulting in an innovative concrete mix design procedure which should result in the concrete lab of the future. It also will ease the private sector (contractor) element of concrete paving in assuming more responsibility for mix designs, as state highway agencies move from method specifications to more advanced acceptance tools.

It dovetails with the second track, Performance-Based Design Guide for New and Rehabilitated Concrete Pavements, which will expand the mechanistic approach of pavement design from design of new pavements to pavement restoration and preservation strategies. It will build on the existing American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials 2002 Guide for the Design of New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures, also called the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide.

That guide is part of the shift from designs that begin with “cookbook” specs and finish in the field, to those based on how a pavement will perform in the field, and work backward to the design. Here, “mechanistic” refers to the interaction between the materials and structure of a pavement, and how it stresses and strains under load deflection. The principle relates these pavement mechanics to empirical or experimental performance data obtained in field or lab.

“As time marches on, the number of items of what we can put in concrete grows and grows,” Voight said. “Slag, fly ash, coldweather concrete admixtures, the list goes on and on. Also, the whole industry is changing to a model in which the contractors are responsible for developing the concrete mixes, and the agencies will not be telling them what the recipe is. Contractors now have the responsibility of bringing these materials together, and they need a system that will help them discern what the workability and durability will be for construction, under different temperature conditions. This track will result in a product that will provide a linkage between design, materials, construction, and preservation.”

Old-school methods of pavement testing, in which a core sample was drilled from a built pavement and tested in the lab, were destructive. More and more, nondestructive testing in the field before and after construction is desired, because a pavement is not damaged by specimen removal or testing.

The third research track, High-Speed Nondestructive Testing and Intelligent Construction Systems, will develop fast, nondestructive systems to continuously monitor pavement properties during construction, so on-the-fly adjustments can be made to ensure the highest quality finished product that meets given performance specifications.

“The specifiers have driven the need for equipment innovation,” Voight said, “and the makers follow rather quickly. This track will study instrumented pavements and new capability equipment that will help us understand what the long-term performance of the pavement will be right up front. That gives the specifier added confidence in the product they’re getting.”

HPC is for pavements as well. In this photo, high performance concrete pavement is placed on I-40 in North Carolina in 2003.

One beef users have with concrete pavements is that they can be noisy, especially when grooved to improve traction and shedding of rain water. Intensive research is being conducted on how to reduce noise from concrete pavements, and the fourth track – Optimized Surface Characteristics for Safe, Quiet and Smooth Concrete Pavements – will help designers meet or exceed requirements for friction/safety, pavement-tire noise, smoothness, splash and spray, wheel path wear, hydroplaning, light reflection, rolling resistance, and durability (longevity).

“The goal of track four is to optimize pavement surface,” Voight said. “There is a spectrum with quiet at one end, and skid-resistance at the other, and a balance has to be struck between them.

If we put all the emphasis on noise, then you may compromise the safety of the system. Preliminary studies show that the accident rates on concrete are much less than on the other paving medium.

We’re learning more about this in track four, in which we can create or modify an existing texturing method or surface that will strike that balance without compromising safety.”

The fifth track, Equipment Automation and Advancements, is expected to result in improved equipment for high-speed, high-quality paving, utilizing onboard microcomputers, global positioning systems, and much more.

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Helping Contractors From Both Yesterday and Today Build Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Interstate System

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Concrete’s Plan for the Future

Improving Joint Design A familiar aspect of concrete pavements are their joints, and the Road Map is investigating how joint performance can be improved through the sixth track, Innovative Concrete Pavement Joint Design, Materials and Construction.

“We know we need [load transfer] dowels in joints,” Voight said. “Dowels, by far, have proven to be the most influential performance improvement in the last 25 years. We used to hear the thump-thump as we drove down the road, as individual slabs faulted with respect to each other. That used to be a critical performance issue for the industry. Now, years after they were built, we have very few performance issues with concrete pavements which were built with dowels between the slabs. Now we will look at what we can do to improve the dowel system, including dowel shape, number, spacing, or materials.

Can we use fibers to replace dowels?

These are the questions we will pursue.”

Concrete pavements feature long lives, but fixing concrete pavements often revolves around joint repair. The seventh track, High-Speed Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation and Construction, will address the ways concrete pavement restoration can be made less expensive or time consuming. “The techniques are proven effective, but improvements may be possible through automation and precast technology,” Voight said.

The eighth track, Long Life Concrete Pavements, dovetails with the current FHWA emphasis on Highways for LIFE. “We know we can get 30 to 40 years out of a good concrete pavement,” Voight said. “The question is, how do we get 60 years or more? A few states have built high-performance concrete (HPC) pavements with a goal of a 50- to 60year lifespan, using things like stainless steel dowel bars and very-low-permeability mixtures to keep chlorides out of the pavement. We will look at ways to develop long-lived concrete pavements, and

ways to lengthen the life of continuously reinforced concrete pavements, which cost more, but perform excellently under very heavy traffic loads.”

Performance Data for Future The ninth track of the Road Map concentrates on Concrete Pavement: Accelerated and Long-Term Data Collection, and will consider the infrastructure needed to collect and report data on lab and realtime testing of concrete pavements. It overlaps with the 10th track, Concrete Pavement Performance, in which concrete will be studied as to its performance in pavement management systems (PMSs) and asset management systems. Such systems are used by road owning agencies to gauge current and future road conditions, and when pavement preservation techniques should be applied to best maximize the “bang for the buck.”

“When we implement new pavement designs – varying the features – we need to start collecting data on their performance immediately, so we can gauge their performance and plug them into the design models,” Voight said.

“Otherwise we will have to wait another 20 to 30 years before we know what that generation of pavement’s performance is. We want to start right off the bat in collecting the information we need, not just structural and stress, but surface characteristics, and all other aspects of the pavement.”

The 11th track is Concrete Pavement Business Systems and Economics. As government staffs shrink, contractors are being asked to assume more control of the operation and quality control inspections. Owning agencies are including warranty provisions in project contracts, asking for additional assurance that pavements will be built and will perform as expected.

“The agencies are changing,” Voight said. “The responsibilities for design are falling more and more onto the contractor.

As these agencies change over time, and their technical experience lessens due to

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Concrete’s Plan for the Future

attrition, the business structure changes. Contractors and consultants are designing and building pavements, rather than the agency designing the structure and the contractor building it. In the future, the contractor will look on the pavement as its asset, to be maintained and preserved. And that favors concrete, because it may cause a contractor to spend a little bit more money up front for an asset that will be longer lasting, like concrete. This track will help our industry be more ready for the big changes of today and the future.”

The last track, Advanced Concrete Pavement Materials, will study new materials and refine or reintroduce existing advanced materials that may enhance performance, improve construction, and reduce waste (examples follow).

New Way of Looking at Pavements “We’re looking at pavements a way we’ve never looked at them before,” said Bill Davenport, ACPA vice president, communications and membership. “We’re considering some of the macrotrends that are emerging. Ten, 20 years ago, we did not understand the concept of sustainability, confusing it with environmental stewardship. And while stewardship is part of sustainability, sustainability includes other issues, such as societal and business impacts of road building and construction.”

“Today – more than at any other time – we’re looking at the environmental impact of concrete pavements in the design, development, and construction of surface transportation infrastructure,” said Robb Jolly, senior vice president, market development and promotion, ACPA. “With pavements, a trend is emerging in which people want environmental stewardship, they want the pavements to fit into society without causing a lot of problems, and we’re seeing agencies strike a balance,” Davenport said. “They are doing more than just making sure an industry complies with only the rules and regulations; they’re doing outreach to see what all stakeholders can do together to attain balance, such as the Green Highways Initiative on the East Coast, a recognition program. Who would have thought three years ago that we would be sitting down at the table, proactively, with the Environmental Protection Agency? But it’s happening.”

For example, a new “Cool Pavement Report: EPA Cool Pavements Study” released in June 2005 describes concrete pavement’s capabilities in reducing the “heat island” effect that contributes to urban “hot spots” and heat retention in built areas during summer.

Cities can be several degrees warmer than surrounding regions due to the built environment and the concentration of human activity, a phenomenon referred to as an urban heat island, the study said. “Pavements have become an important contributor to this effect by altering land cover over significant portions of an urban area. Analyses in cities such as Chicago, Houston, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City have shown that

pavements for both travel and parking can account for 29 to 39 percent of urban land surface.”

Researchers have studied ways to reduce the urban heat island effect, and have identified vegetation, “cool roofing” materials, and “cool pavements” as mitigation strategies.

“Cool pavements can be achieved with existing paving technologies and do not require new materials,” the EPA study said last summer. “Possible mechanisms for creating a cool pavement that have been studied to date are increased surface reflectance, which reduces the solar radiation absorbed by the pavement; increased permeability, which cools the pavement through evaporation of water; and a composite structure for noise reduction, which also has been found to emit lower levels of heat at night.”

Several conventional paving technologies now exist that can apply these mechanisms, the study added, stating greater reflectance can be provided by conventional concrete, with its high albedo (rate of reflectance), roller-compacted concrete, concrete-over-asphalt (“whitetopping” and “ultra-thin whitetopping”), asphalt concrete and asphalt chip seals with light-colored aggregate, and asphalt pavements with modified color.

Other environmental benefits of high-albedo concrete pavements include reduced need for nighttime illumination. “More reflective pavements can enhance visibility at night, potentially reducing lighting requirements and saving both money and energy,” the report says. “European road designers often take pavement color into account when planning lighting needs. Better illumination from lighter pavements is sometimes considered valuable at private establishments as well, for security or customer appeal. Some sources cite nighttime illumination enhancements of 10 to 30 percent with more reflective pavements.”

Recycled Materials and HPC That reclaimed, recycled industrial byproducts are essential elements of the high-performance concrete (HPC) pavements of today is just one more way PCC is showing its environmental sustainability as a paving medium.

Industrial byproducts — which in past years would have been dumped in landfills — now are key components to HPC. An immediate environmental benefit of the use of reclaimed industrial byproducts in concrete is lessened pressure on landfills.

Another is that with their use, less cement is needed for a given application, so use of these cementitious byproducts in concrete means a reduction in the amount of energy consumed by the cement manufacturing industry, and parallel reductions in carbon dioxide and water vapor emissions at the cement plant.

And use of these reclaimed materials in HPC provides added value for the owner of the concrete bridges, because these recyclable industrial byproducts — such as coal fly ash, silica fume from glass manufacture, and ground granulated blast furnace (GGBF) slag from steelmaking — result in stronger, more durable structural

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Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Concrete’s Plan for the Future

Constructing the 10.45-mile "missing link" of I-26 in Madison County, N.C., meant building a high-tech concrete highway through some of North Carolina's most rugged terrain. The project won the 2004 Best Highway Project, Divided Highways: Rural Award from the American Concrete Pavement Association. elements, allowing designers to specify fewer elements, all things being equal, with equivalent first-cost savings.

HPC – also called “durable concrete,” is an engineered concrete made up of the classic components of water, portland cement, and fine and coarse aggregates, but with a twist. With HPC pavements, materials and admixtures are carefully selected and proportioned to realize high early strengths, high ultimate strengths, and high durability beyond conventional concrete. HPC can provide enhanced mechanical properties in precast concrete structural elements, including higher tensile and compressive strengths, and heightened modulus of elasticity (stiffness).

HPC using reclaimed industrial byproducts had been used in structural applications in private sector-owned highrise buildings for decades, but until the 1990s, DOTs and public-sector owners had been hesitant to specify it due to a lack of experience in bridge or pavement applications. This lack of experience is

being rectified through an active research program sponsored by the FHWA and interested state DOTs. For example, the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP, 1988-1993), a five-year, $150 million research program paid for by the state departments of transportation, studied the efficacy of HPC in bridge structures as a way to quell corrosion of rebar from meltwater from deicing salt. The first HPC structural designs were constructed in the mid1990s. HPC began migrating to pavements in the late 1990s and now at middecade it has fully penetrated PCC pavement construction.

In frost-prone regions, the benefits of HPC are great. In the case of pavements, bridges, and overpasses, the enhanced durability of HPC means it strongly resists penetration of chloride-laden snow and ice melt water, resulting in a longer life for the reinforcing steel within, and a reduction in spalling, cracking, and associated repairs.

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In the race between paving media – concrete versus asphalt – asphalt has had a clear advantage in terms of pavement smoothness. But in the last decade, concrete has made tremendous progress in attaining the supersmooth pavements motorists and road agencies demand.

Placement techniques are being studied and refined to get the smoothest pavements without sacrificing speed of placement.

Resulting guidelines are being actively transferred to road agencies and contractors through many channels.

A valuable new pavement smoothness measuring standard — the International Roughness Index — is being publicized and adopted in the United States. Lightweight pavement profilers that use laser and inertial technology to measure roughness are replacing the conventional California profilograph. And new research is showing how alternative tining practices can reduce the annoying tire “whine” associated with tined PCC pavements, while improving perceived smoothness.

“Pavement smoothness is important for portland cement concrete because pavements that are initially built smooth stay smooth longer,” said Mark Swanlund, P.E., FHWA senior pavement design engineer.

“That’s directly related to the service provided by the facility to the public. And smoothness increases user satisfaction throughout the life of the pavement.”

The FHWA’s ongoing Pavement Smoothness Initiative dates back to a survey released in May 1996, in which the National Highway User Survey found that highway users want pavement smoothness more than any other aspect of their driving experience.

“Improving pavement smoothness directly addresses our pavement condition goal of 95 percent of travel on the National Highway System on pavements with an IRI of 170 inches per mile or less by 2008,” Swanlund said.

To ensure smoothness, the FHWA urges contractors to have precise stringlines, watch paving speed and delivery rate, control the head of concrete at the paver, strive for mix consistency, and use minimal hand finishing.

AMERICAN CONCRETE PAVEMENT ASSOCIATION PHOTO

Smoother Pavements, Too

Guest Editorial

Concrete Community Is Looking Ahead to the Next 50 Years

By Peter J. Deem

On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff of the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA), as well as the regional and state affiliates throughout the United States, we stand ready, willing, and able to support all of those who are responsible for ensuring that the Interstate highway system meets both current and future needs of our society.

In that regard, ACPA is pleased to provide a full array of products and services that are aimed at helping public officials and roadbuilders alike. Examples include our education and training programs, which focus on topics ranging from the basics of concrete pavements all the way through more advanced topics, including Mechanistic-Empirical Design Guide training.

Our growing line of technical publications cover pavement design, materials, construction, and pavement preservation. Of course, these technical resources are only part of the equation and represent just a part of the breadth and depth of service the ACPA network provides.

Our team of engineers and technical experts at both the national and local levels work to provide the right answers at the right time for local agencies, elected officials, and consultants involved in transportation planning and construction. We are acutely aware of the challenges that our customers face, not the least of which are the resources to meet the needs of the traveling public both today and in the future.

Congestion, Safety Top Issues Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no secret that congestion and safety are among the top issues on the minds of many highway users. With that in mind, we will never compromise our commitment to safety, which must remain a constant factor in our quest to build and maintain a quality system. Our customers in the public sector and industry also face these issues, plus the added challenges of limited resources to meet the most pressing needs of the Interstate system.

As such, the American Concrete Pavement Association is dedicated to doing whatever it takes to address the serious problems that plague the quality of service on this great system.

We are working to educate and inform the driving public, and indeed all stakeholders, of just how important the Interstate highway system is to economic prosperity, personal mobility, and freedoms we all enjoy. We will advocate for funding, and equally important, for innovative approaches to funding so that strategic expansion keeps up with the increasing vehicles and freight driven by population growth and the global economy. We also will continue our long history of technical leadership, promoting effective design, construction, and pavement preservation processes and products.

But we cannot go it alone. There is no better time than now to unite around the common purpose of meeting the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the next 50 years. Meeting the needs of the future will require participation and innovation by stakeholders in both the public and private sectors. It will require excellent ideas, hard work, and extra effort â&#x20AC;&#x201D; along with equal amounts of research, technology transfer, technology implementation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by all who have a stake in this system.

The Future Interstate We will have to both ask and answer hard questions, including: What will the Interstate look like in the future? How and who will pay for improvements and strategic expansion?

How will we meet the rapidly growing demand associated with increased traffic and freight loadings in the future?

There are, of course, other pressing issues and questions, including: What will be our roles and responsibilities toward environmental stewardship and other aspects of sustainability? How do we ensure a balanced approach to meet the needs of all stakeholders? And, of course, what other issues will we face as stewards of this important national treasure?

All of these are challenging questions, to be sure, but working together, we can continue to improve this truly world-class network and ensure that we have reason to celebrate at the 100-year anniversary of this system.

Peter Deem is 2006 chairman, American Concrete Pavement Association, and is vice president, National and Regional Promotions, Holcim (US) Inc., Louisville, Colo.

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Utley, a second generation family-owned premium flatbed carrier.

Doing business since 1961. We salute the Interstate Highway System on their 50th Anniversary.

Utley Inc. 804 N.Walnut, Steele, Mo Ph (800) 325-0215 Fax (573) 695-2279 www.utleyinc.com

Redflex Traffic Systems enhances public safety by providing full service photo red-light and speed enforcement solutions. Providing cities and counties with no risk, no cost turnkey programs, Redflex is the largest full service provider in the USA. Inquires to: sales@redflex.com

American Coal Ash Association promotes environmentally responsible, technically sound and commercially competitive beneficial uses of coal combustion products through working American Coal Ash partnerships, technical assistance, Association publications, education, meetings and workshops. www.acaa-usa.org

Cutler Repaving, Inc has been hot in-place recycling existing asphalt pavements with its single pass, single machine process for 38 years. During that time, over 400 cities, 921 E. 27th St. counties and state DOT’s have saved time, money, and Lawrence, KS, 66046 energy by recycling this non-renewable natural resource.

Phone 785-843-1524 As North America’s largest hot in-place recycling contracFax 785-843-3942 www.cutlerrepaving.com tor, Cutler has completed enough recycled pavement to stretch from New York to Los Angles over 6.5 times.

For over forty years, Aexcel has provided road marking products to make our roads safer, day and night.

Essroc is a leading North American cement producer, a part of the Italcementi Group of companies, global leaders in cement, building materials, and related technologies and research.

Russ Francis,Vice President Sales rfrancis@aexcelcorp.com • 440-205-7328.

For more information, please visit our website at: www.essroc.com or call us at 800-523-9238.

PAVEMENT PRESERVATION: Preserve our $120 Billion Interstate System Investment Supplier of quality performance graded liquid asphalts throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

With headquarters in Roanoke, Virginia, and rail-supplied terminals in Virginia, North and South Carolina and West Virginia, and over 1 million barrels of storage, we can meet your asphalt needs.

Roanoke Headquarters: 1-800-542-5780.Visit our website: www.associatedasphalt.com

The TRACK PADS

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Pavement Preservation is the right treatment for the right pavement at the right time. Preserve our highways using a toolbox of treatments that save money and keep motorists happy. Find out how at www.fp2.org.

Foundation for Pavement Preservation (FP2) • Austin • 866.862.4587

Polyurethane Street Pad Now Worldwide!

Irving Materials, Inc. and its partnering company, E & B Paving, salute the 50th Anniversary of the Interstate Highway System.

"WHY IS THIS MAN SMILING?"

Toll Free! USA & Canada

Because He Is The FIRST To Provide POLYURETHANE BOLT-ON TRACK PADS Which Attach To Triple Grousers

1-800-307-0299 1115 Hilltop Drive, Unit B1 Itasca, Illinois 60143

+1-630-775-0900 (Int'l) Fax +1-630-775-0903

Celebrating 20 Years of TRACK PADS

The First In USA To Provide Bonded Polyurethane Track Pads In 1986

Mr. Ronald Davis Chairman of Board President, CEO

e-mail: bls@tufpads.com www.TUFPADS.com

Together, IMI and E & B Paving work to provide excellence in concrete and asphalt paving for the Interstate Highway System. These efforts have resulted in numerous Quality in Construction Awards. We look forward to the future!

EFS:The Electrochemical Fatigue Sensor

Cobra Electronics is a leading global manufacturer of two-way communication and navigation products. The Consumer Electronics Association, Forbes and Deloitte & Touche have all recently recognized Cobra for the company's innovation and industry leadership.

www.cobra.com

Crumpler Plastic Pipe, Inc.

Phone: 910-525-4046 Toll Free: 1-800-334-5071 Fax: 910-525-5801 www.cpp-pipe.com

HIGHWAY CULVERTS 3” to 48” • Airport Runway/Parking Lot Golf Course Storm Drains • Industrial Waste Water Applications • Constructed Wetlands • Landfill Drainage • Sewer Sludge Compost Pipe

• A new, proven ND technology to find fatigue cracks in metals subjected to cyclic stresses.

• Detects more smaller growing cracks than any other technology

• Useful for verifying effectiveness of bridge and other structural repairs

Material Technologies, Inc. www.matechcorp.com | matech@att.net Phone 310-208-5589 | Fax 310-473-3177

Tele Atlas, a leading global geographic content provider, serves more transportation and public safety agencies than any other commercial street database provider.

800.331.7881 | www.teleatlas.com

Celebrating 50 Years of the Interstate Highway System

Defense and the Interstates continued from page 51 the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and the National Highway Designation Act of 1995. In addition to the actual creation of the Interstate, the inclusion of STRAHNET in the NHS was a key milestone for the DoD because it marked the first time that defense-important public highway requirements were identified in national surface transportation policy.

The investment we have made in the Interstate system and STRAHNET is critical to the security and defense of our country; therefore, we must ensure they are maintained to standard, expanded where necessary, and perform efficiently into the future. To ensure the capability to move military personnel and equipment to the ports expeditiously, the nation must sustain a robust and responsive defense transportation system. The Interstate system is a component of the DTS and must continue to provide the capability necessary to ensure our national security and economic growth.

As we look to the future, the DoD will continue to pursue ways to shorten the time to deploy our armed forces to critical trouble spots worldwide. One of the primary means to achieve this goal is to transform future combat and support systems into lighter, more mobile forces while still maintaining the same or greater lethality level.

Reducing equipment size and weight will allow more equipment to be loaded on each ship, thereby increasing the quantity of materiel and expediting the delivery of equipment into the combat theater.

The next surface transportation reauthorization legislation will be critical to the future defense movement capability and the economic viability of the country. As we approach this important milestone, policymakers must consider the future role of the military as it relates to natural disasters, homeland defense, and national security, and the need for the highway system to support these efforts. Defense needs must be included in the next reauthorization legislation.

But what will the next reauthorization legislation include, and in what direction will our legislators go? There are several issues and technologies that must be investigated and pursued to enhance defense mobility/deployability as well as interstate commerce. A significant issue to the military is the capability (condition and capacity) of the “first mile” and the “last mile,” i.e. how do we ensure that critical roads (connectors) providing access from the forts and bases to the Interstate system and from the Interstate to the seaports and airports meet military needs and contribute to the rapid movement of forces? Also, in light of the declining revenues coming into the national Highway Trust Fund, where will we find new funding sources for future infrastructure maintenance and construction needs? New funding alternatives should be thoroughly evaluated, and their impact on military movements, such as increased tolling, must be addressed. We need to ensure that a comprehensive Interstate and NHS follow-on program builds on the successes of the Interstate system, and that current and future technologies are integrated into the national highway system for the 21st century. This must include access issues, intelligent transportation systems, congestion mitigation, and capacity needs, to list

just a few. As with current policy, the size and weight of military equipment as well as the origins and destinations must be considered. Another area that is critical is maintaining capacity in construction areas and in developing construction techniques that significantly reduce the time that construction/maintenance crews are on the job site. Advances in these areas will directly lead to increased mobility, reduced congestion, and greater safety on our highways. Implementing such measures in the future could be the most important objective of the postInterstate federal highway program.

This anniversary of the Interstate system may serve as the springboard or stepping stone for developing a comprehensive national surface transportation policy that will translate into landmark reauthorization legislation required in FY 2010! The nation’s surface transportation program will continue to affect the military’s force projection capability and the economy. Therefore, the objective of these reauthorization initiatives must be to maintain a national highway system that will ensure our continued economic and military position in the world. As with the creation of the Interstate system, it is imperative to national defense that military requirements be included in future surface transportation policy decisions and reauthorization legislation.

Gen. Eisenhower would be pleased and impressed by the incredible contribution the Interstate system has made to the U.S. economy and the mobility of our military forces. The Interstate connects the “dots” (forts, bases, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, airports, seaports, rail yards, refineries, economic centers, and more), enabling our robust economy and providing the foundation for mobility throughout the United States. It is vital to the mission of America’s warfighters and the defense of our nation. It is not a coincidence that developing countries are placing significant emphasis on enhancing, improving, and expanding their transportation infrastructure. They recognize the importance of a viable transportation network to a growing and expanding economy. It is imperative that we maintain our transportation infrastructure to established standards and continue to enhance our world-class highway transportation capability.

Congratulations to the nation and its highway professionals on the 50th anniversary of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Be proud of your achievements!

Kenneth (Ken) Wykle, president of the National Defense Transportation Association, is the former administrator, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation and a retired Army lieutenant general. His last duty assignment was as deputy commander, U.S. Transportation Command. He has worked in the private sector as vice president, Defense Transportation, SAIC, and as senior vice president, Public Sector, Savi Technology.

Robert D. Franz, Highways Systems Program Director, Office of the Special Assistant for Transportation Engineering, Surface Deployment & Distribution Command, Transportation Engineering Agency, contributed to this article.

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Moving America for 50 Years Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) salutes the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration and state departments of transportation across the nation for the mobility, economic development and safety provided by the U.S. interstate highway system. For 50 years, PB is proud to have assisted our clients with the planning, design, and construction management of the highways that move America.

For career opportunities in transportation planning, design and construction-phase services, please visit www.pbworld.com.

PB provided program management, planning, design and construction management services for Hawaii's Interstate Route H-3.