State highway department

“ The authority of the state highway department varies in the several states, but in general the departments serve in the dual capacity of general advisers to the county and township authorities on road matters and as the executive authority responsible for the construction of those highways that are built entirely or in part from state or federal funds. ”

“ The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 extended the Federal-aid highway program to Alaska for the first time, and it transferred all the functions and responsibilities for the Territory’s highway program to BPR. Personnel of the Alaska Road Commission were transferred to the existing BPR Alaska at this time, and the direct responsibility for the location, surveys, design, contract administration, construction supervision, and highway maintenance of the 5,356-mile highway system placed the Bureau in the position of acting as a State highway department. ”

“ Unlike the railroads, local highways are built, owned, and maintained by the state or its municipal subdivisions. The state has a primary and immediate concern in their safe and economical administration. The present regulations, or any others of like purpose, if they are to accomplish their end, must be applied alike to interstate and intrastate traffic both moving in large volume over the highways. The fact that they affect alike shippers in interstate and intrastate commerce in large number within as well as without the state is a safeguard against their abuse. ”

“ If at any time the department, with the advice of the Departmental Transportation Advisory Committee, determines that the corridor protection program of local governmental agencies, with respect to any highway which has been designated as an official state scenic highway, no longer adequately carries out responsibility of the local governmental agencies for the protection of the scenic corridor, it may revoke the designation of the highway as an official state scenic highway and remove the signs which so indicate the highway. ”

“ A detailed study of the status of improvement of the National System of Interstate Highways has been made, with the complete cooperation of every State highway department. The Secretary of Defense and the National Security Resources Board have been invited to cooperate and have responded with suggestion of the indicated or potential needs for improved highways for the national defense ”

“ Private financial interests are still undertaking to commercialize and exploit the traffic on the roads of the state and Federal Aid highway systems by the construction and operation of toll bridges at points where traffic is concentrated as a result of the vast expenditure of public funds on the construction of these free highways ”

“ The relinquished former portion of Route 86 within the City of Imperial is not a state highway and is not eligible for adoption under Section 81. For the relinquished former portion of Route 86, the City of Imperial shall install and maintain within its jurisdiction signs directing motorists to the continuation of Route 86 to the extent deemed necessary by the department. The City of Imperial shall ensure the continuity of traffic flow on the relinquished portion of Route 86 within its jurisdiction, including any traffic signal progression. ”

“ Traffic census shows a 40 per cent increase in travel over this section in the past three years, greatly overstressing the maximum economic capacity of the road. It is estimated that present travel will increase 175 per cent in the next ten years.
The Ridge Route was constructed in 1914 as one of the first projects undertaken by the California Highway Commission. The total motor vehicle registration of the state in that year was 125,516 as compared with a present registration of 2,015,418. ”

“ Notwithstanding any other provision of law or limitation on the use of funds made available under section 403 of title 23, United States Code, an additional $130,000 shall be made available to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, out of the amount limited for section 402 of title 23, United States Code, to pay for travel and related expenses for State management reviews and to pay for core competency development training and related expenses for highway safety staff. ”

“ The highway location problems now are to find those places to build the roads that will provide an adequate highway facility for the particular traffic to be served and, at the same time, cause a minimal disruption of families, a minimum disturbance of the landscape, and the least adverse effect on such things as established school districts, church parishes, park areas and historical sites. The FHWA’s role in location is largely to make certain that State highway departments have placed in proper relationship the various engineering, social, and environmental elements of highway location. ”

“ Not all States were starting from the same status in 1956 either, for a variety of reasons. A “shelf” of acceptable project plans was available in some States but not in others. Some State highway departments were able to staff up to the job rapidly while others took much longer; many had previously acquired little or no right-of-way on their own; some had never before designed or built freeways on a large scale.
Interstate projects are complex undertakings, consuming 3 or 4 years from beginning of route location study to final completion—and often much longer in urban areas. ”

“ When the first Federal-aid road act became a law on July 11, 1916, a number of States had no highway department, and as late as 1920 there were some States that had highway departments in name only, all highway work actually being in the hands of county and other local officials. ”

“ The State highway departments cannot, if they would, avoid the responsibility of major contribution to such planning effort when it is undertaken, as surely, soon or late it will be, in every State. The State highway planning surveys will be the expected source of most of the facts required in that planning. ”

“ Nothing contained in this article shall prevent the department, either by acquisition or by condemnation, from terminating easements of access to any state highway not in the California Freeway and Expressway System, provided that such action by the department shall not have the effect of including the highway in the California Freeway and Expressway System. ”

“ Businessmen and city officials generally encouraged automobile commuting to in-town employment and did not oppose providing daytime storage space for the vehicles.
But as problems of city street congestion led to greater penetration of rural highways into the heart of central cities, more people were affected by the taking of right-of-way and by the construction and operation of highways. Organized opposition to the urban highway improvement program became a major factor in determining the course of Federal and State high- way transportation legislation in the 1960's. ”

“ Of all these, the interstate system must be given top priority in construction planning. But at the current rate of development, the interstate network would not reach even a reasonable level of extent and efficiency in half a century. State highway departments cannot effectively meet the need. Adequate right-of-way to assure control of access, grade separation structures, relocation and realinement of present highways—all these, done on the necessary scale within an integrated system, exceed their collective capacity. ”

“ To carry out the work directed by Congress, the Secretary created the Office of Road Inquiry, the small beginning from which the world’s largest highway program was to develop.
When the Federal interest in roads was reinstituted in 1893, the appropriation was made to the Department of Agriculture because the recognized problem was in the rural areas—there were not enough adequate roads for the farmers to get their produce to the railroad terminals and even nearby towns. The cities and larger towns were considered to be adequately satisfying their own internal road needs. ”

“ In addition, all States are required to have an approved highway safety program designed to reduce the frequency and severity of traffic accidents and which must meet certain Federal performance criteria. Inventories of accident locations, bridge structural conditions and railroad-highway crossings are required to assure funding of highway priority needs. Each State must have a schedule for updating traffic signs, signals and pavement markings to meet uniform standards. ”

“ The national highway program is in the throes of major change in direction and emphasis. These changes are emanating from complex issues and problems associated with growing questions of government involvement. For instance, the appropriate roles of Federal, State, and local governments in highway construction, operation, and maintenance are being reconsidered. We realize that the Interstate System is going to require a continuing process of resurfacing, restoring, and rehabilitation to maintain the high level of transportation service demanded by the public. ”

“ As the street and highway networks expanded, more and more people found it convenient to live in the suburbs and drive to and from work, but the convenience decreased rapidly as the highways became congested with ever-increasing volumes of vehicles.
The city, county and State highway authorities tried to keep up with the traffic increase, first by widening streets and highways and then by providing special high-capacity roads such as parkways and expressways, commonly financed by bond issues. ”

“ Traffic volume is often a factor in determining highway needs.
While the basic principle of State initiation and Federal review and approval remained intact, the continuing enactment over the years of new highway legislation with new programs and new provisions inevitably led to increasingly complex step-by-step project procedures to a degree that never could have been imagined in 1921. ”

“ Roadside development programs were normally limited to areas within right-of-way lines to improve appearance and safety, to provide amenities for the traveling public, to facilitate maintenance, and to control runoff and erosion. Development of private land on the other side of these lines might greatly affect the capacity or the safety of the highway or the view seen by the motorist, but normally this development could only be controlled through such measures as zoning, and this was considered, by State highway officials, to be the province of local governments. ”

“ Notable exceptions are seen in the Interstate System, which surely is a system planned by highway planners for highway transportation, and in the great undeveloped State of Alaska where new routes are being laid out to permit development of its natural resources. So compared to the many underdeveloped countries, the United States has in effect been doing not highway planning, but highway improvement planning. ”

“ Our vast network of highways, which account for 90 percent of travel and 80 percent by value of freight traffic goods movement, is deteriorating. If current trends continue, a major proportion of the Interstate pavement will have deteriorated by the end of the 1980's.
Arresting the deterioration of the nation's system of highways is a high priority objective for the 1980's. We must reorient the Federal mission from major new construction projects to the stewardship of the existing Interstate Highway System. ”

“ Regulation of vehicular traffic over the highways of the United States involves a far more varied and complex undertaking. The highways of the country have been built by the states with substantial financial aid from the federal government in the construction of some of them. [3] They are state owned, and, in general, are open in each state to use by privately owned and controlled motor vehicles of widely different character as respects weight, size, and equipment. ”