United States Public Roads Administration

“ Provision of adequate highways has never been abreast of demand. Needs were mounting prior to World War II. During the war, curtailment of construction resulted in a further lag. Since 1946 traffic has increased with each succeeding year, but highway construction has not kept pace.
In needs studies made during the immediate postwar pane (1946–50) , the rapid increase in highway usage was viewed by many as a tempo phenomenon—a leveling-off was anticipated in the predictable future. Even so, estimates of needs showed construction requirements of great magnitude. ”

“ About three-fourths of a cent per vehicle-mile is now being collected in the form of road-user taxes. These amounts may be compared to the cost of owning and operating a vehicle, which for passenger cars is variously estimated at from 8 to 10 cents per mile, and for trucks at correspondingly higher figures. The cost of the highway itself is but a small part of the total cost of motor-vehicle transportation. ”

“ If the present rates of taxation of motor fuel are continued and the present structures of registration fees and other special user taxes are continued, if allowance is made for the estimated increases in vehicle registration and use of motor fuel during the next 10-year period, and if the current rates of expenditures for maintenance and administration are continued, it is estimated that $47 billion will become available for highway construction. Thus a deficit of $54 billion must be overcome if the estimated 10-year needs are to be met. ”

“ When a road or street is to be improved, the new construction should conform to certain requirements for width, alinement, grade, and so on. These requirements are called geometric design standards, In preparing the cost estimates of needed improvements for this study the highest design standards were, of course, used for the interstate system. ”

“ Continuing needs
It is not possible to “complete” a highway in the sense that it can by a single construction, operation be made forever adequate. From the very day that highway facilities are opened to traffic, they begin the course of deterioration and obsolescence that eventually leads to necessary reconstruction or replacement. ”

“ The Bureau of Public Roads sought the cooperation of the 48 States, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, and the basic estimates of needs and costs presented in this report represent the data furnished by them.
It is recognized that some tendency to understate needs still exists. Lack of full supporting evidence of need may cause the paring down of estimates to the point where they cannot be questioned; this is probably true in greater degree in the estimates for urban areas. ”

“ It is not intended to imply that all needs for highway improvement are equally urgent, or that all needs should be met in the next decade at the expense of other urgent national needs.
To meet all highway needs in 10 years, and maintain adequacy thereafter, construction requirements would be as shown in figure 3, which presents the needs for each 5-year period from 1955 to 1984, with indications of the needs of the interstate system, other Federal-aid systems, and the non-Federal-aid systems. ”

“ For other principal road and street systems, determination of sections needing rebuilding by 1964 was based on the acceptability of tolerable conditions—under which roads and streets can be considered acceptable even though they may not measure up to the design standard. Such roads and streets would be kept in service until they were no longer judged as being adequate even by the measure of tolerable conditions. ”

“ In this sense, therefore, a highway system is never complete.
Basis of needs
The term “needs” likewise requires explanation. It is a word widely used in recent years to denote construction backlog. Amounts cited as “needs” sometimes refer to the cost of complete modernization as of a given moment; sometimes they cover a construction program stretching over a period of years.
Some estimates are based on the needs of current traffic; others take future traffic fully into account. ”

“ The volume of traffic is ever increasing; there is continuous change in the characteristics of the vehicles—their sizes, weights, power, and speed capabilities; new traffic needs develop. Thus in time it becomes necessary to straighten alinements, reduce grades, provide more width, and add new roads. ”

“ The governors’ representatives also recommended that the cost of meeting the total highway construction needs should be divided between the Federal Government and the State and local governments in the ratio of 30 percent Federal and 70 percent State and local.
State and local governments have responsibility for the entire cost of constructing those road systems for which Federal aid is not available and for matching in statutory ratio the Federal funds provided for participation in the cost of construction on the Federal-aid systems. ”

“ It was estimated that 59 percent of the existing rural mileage and 47 percent of the existing urban mileage will require improvement within the 10-year period. The cost of needed improvements averages $51,000 per mile for rural mileage and $260,000 per mile for urban mileage. There are wide variations in these averages, however, between and within States and by type of work. The total needed work on this mileage during the hag period 1955–64, according to State estimates, amounts to $5.5 billion, of which $3.7 billion is in rural and $1.8 billion in urban areas. ”

“ The cost of needed construction, designed to modernize the Nation’s roads and streets over the next 10 years, will amount to $101 billion, and an additional $25 billion will be required for highway maintenance and administration. ”

“ Additionally, the true needs in many cities are exceedingly great in relation to current prospects of meeting them, and there is a tendency toward understatement in the interest of producing an estimate that reflects financial feasibility rather than anticipated needs. ”

“ Since then, economic studies based on the wealth of data made available by the 1950 census have indicated that other elements of the Nation’s economy were also enjoying vigorous growth patterns, and that they are likely to so continue, It has become evident that the continuing increase of highway travel is not an isolated trend. ”

“ And decision must also take into consideration the means by which funds can be made available—such means as general taxation, highway-user taxation, and borrowing through general-obligation or toll-revenue bonds. All these means are used, singly or in combination, in financing the various segments of our highway systems. ”

“ Natural forces—heat, cold, and moisture—subject the roads to damaging erosion, freezing and thawing, contraction and expansion.
The endlessly repetitive passage of vehicles, particularly those with heavy axle loads, pound away, flexing and fatiguing the surfaces. ”

“ For this added cost, the interstate system roads will have longer service lives and will be capable of carrying twice as much traffic as other roads not incorporating these features, and will carry it more efficiently.
Looming in importance both on a cost basis and a percentage basis is the magnitude of the right-of-way problem in urban areas. The total urban right-of-way costs for the 10-year period are estimated at $8.2 billion, 23 percent of all urban costs and 8 percent of the entire $101 billion estimate. ”

“ If the needs were so fulfilled, construction needs for replacement and expansion thereafter would continue at a fairly constant proportion of the gross national product, averaging about 0.8 percent a year.
MAINTENANCE NEEDS
Maintenance needs are additional to construction needs and must be considered in the total costs of a highway program. In 1955, maintenance expenditures for all road and street mileage in the United States will total about $1.75 billion, according to estimates furnished by each State. ”

“ The amount of such needed work varies on each system. For example, only one-tenth of the deficient mileage on the secondary system involves the construction of a complete new road on new location, whereas over a third of the needed improvements on the urban portions of the primary system is in this category. ”

“ After 1974 additional lanes will be built as traffic needs warrant.
Other Federal-aid primary
1955–64.—The concept of development for the Federal-aid primary system (exclusive of the interstate system) for the first 10 years is to provide improvements so that the system will, by the end of 1964, be adequate for traffic of that year. y road section improved during this period shall have a generally high-type surface, a sufficient number of lanes to take care of traffic for 10 years, and adequacy in other geometric respects for 30 years from the date of its construction. ”