State highway

“ The great preponderance of highway traffic in the United States is served by the rural roads included in the Federal-aid and State highway systems and by city streets. Local rural roads administered by county and lesser governmental units, although they comprise the large percentage of the total rural highway mileage, serve a relatively small percentage of the total vehicle-mileage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Main roads are generally State highways, or primary State highways in cases where all or nearly all of the rural road mileage is under State jurisdiction. In 1948, nearly three-quarters of all travel on rural roads was on these main roads, as can be seen from the table, and 21 percent of this travel was by trucks. The discussion of truck traffic is confined to main rural roads because weight surveys have been made principally on this class of road since the 1936-38 prewar period. ”

“ In a requirement for earlier action, another section of the 1973 Act called for the designation of “Priority Primary Routes.“ These routes were to be high traffic sections to supplement the Interstate System by ”. . . furnishing needed adequate traffic collector and distributor facilities . . .“ These routes were to be selected by the State highway departments in “consultation” (not cooperation) with appropriate local officials. The States were to make an initial selection of such routes and estimate and report to Congress by July 1974 their cost. ”

“ With heavier traffic and higher speeds, it became dangerous to drive in the middle of the road, and the States began painting centerlines on the pavements to channelize traffic in lanes. [N 3] At 40 miles per hour, these lanes appeared uncomfortably narrow to most motorists, especially when passing trucks. The lane lines also caused trucks to run closer to the shoulder where they caused increased breakage of slab edges and corners. To provide greater safety and reduce edge damage, the State highway departments built wider pavements, and they also made new roads straighter. ”

“ Later they gave way to the railroads and roadbuilding became a forgotten and lost science. Any man who could nap rock was a roadbuilder.
With the coming of the automobile and the motor truck the road is again the artery of commerce. Interest has been revived. We are beginning to appreciate the State highways and turnpikes built nearly one hundred years ago. We find them hard to improve on, even with present day methods. We can build a better surface, but we can’t build a better subgrade. ”

“ To spend these funds, the Bureau of Public Roads rapidly built up an engineering and construction organization equivalent to that of an average State highway department, but scattered over hundreds of thousands of square miles of forests. The roads it built in the early twenties were narrow and steep but reasonably adequate for the traffic. [N 2] Much of the construction, especially in the solid rock sections, was done by station contracts under which a "station gang" of cooperative laborers contracted to excavate a 100-foot section of road:
These men attack the ledge in various ways. ”

“ To some extent the state highway departments are able to encourage economical and correct construction of highways by the township and county authorities by furnishing them standard plans and specifications and by formulating regulations to govern the character of construction, but such efforts are likely to be more or less ineffective unless the state authority has supervision of the allotment of state or federal funds to the various counties and townships. ”

“ There are now in process of construction in the 11 Western States more than 20 projects, all of which run over mountain passes at elevations of from 3,000 to 10,000 feet. These particular roads involve some of the most difficult pieces of construction in the entire western road program, and many are connecting links in State highways. ”

“ In the old days the highway of commerce, whether by water or by a road on land, was open to all; it belonged to the public and the traffic along it was free. At present the railway is this highway, and we must do our best to see that it is kept open to all on equal terms. Unlike the old highway it is a very difficult and complex thing to manage, and it is far better that it should be managed by private individuals than by the Government. But it can only be so managed on condition that justice is done the public. ”

“ It is further declared to be essential to the future development of the State of California that the deficiencies on the State Highway System not a part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and deficiencies on connections to the State Highway System be corrected simultaneously with the highways in the California Freeway and Expressway System in proportion to the relative deficiencies and the needs of traffic service. ”

“ The highway with which we are concerned is known as route 16, and is one of the chief arteries of travel between central New Jersey and the lake and mountain regions of the northern part of the state, northeastern Pennsylvania, and the lower counties of New York. In connection with two other highway routes, it has become one of the principal roads between New York and Philadelphia. The traffic diagonally across the state is so heavy and so constantly growing that no one road can carry it all. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The 1 percent of the country’s total rural-road mileage, which forms the rural portion of the designated interstate system, served in the several States an average of 2714 percent of the travel on all rural roads in each State by vehicles registered in other States. The designated rural system is thus shown to be outstandingly of service to that portion of the country’s highway traffic that can be classed as interstate in character. ”

“ He thinks “in the use of the railroads constructed by the state it will probably be best for the state to furnish the motive power, leaving the cars for the conveyance of freight and passengers to be furnished by individuals or companies, from whom the [107] state will exact the proper toll for the use of the road, and for the motive power.” The idea seems everywhere to have prevailed that a railway was a public highway to be used by and for the benefit of the public. ”

“ Other than the sections mentioned, there are few if any of the more heavily traveled existing highways approximating in location the routes of the interregional system, that approach in their present state the standards proposed for the system. On most of these non-conforming heavily traveled roads, there is present need for major improvement which would generally be associated with those features of design essential for the provision of free traffic flow and only to a lesser degree with the structural quality and condition of pavements. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Less than a century ago these highways were still, as they had been since the dawn of history, either waterways, natural or artificial, or else ordinary roads for wheel vehicles drawn by animal power. The railroad, which was utterly unknown when our Government was formed and when the great principles of our jurisprudence were laid down, has now become almost everywhere the most important, and, in many large regions, the only form of highway for commerce. The man who controls its use can not be permitted to control it in his own interest alone. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Railroads are destined ultimately to lose all of their short haul business and hence the roads which are in comparatively small and compact territories are sure to suffer. The only hope for some roads ... is to sell certain of their rights of way to the state in order that the tracks may be removed and concrete highways laid in their place. Many roads have parallel lines to-day under their control. The wise railroad company will develop one of these for itself and will sell the other at a good price to the state for a concrete truck highway. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Good roads were an important link in the creative force that is transportation that started from the waterways, to the railways, to roadways, and on to the airways.
A continuing theme throughout the Chief’s years with the Bureau of Public Roads was the importance of the principle of Federal-State cooperation in the framework of our form of government. Pyke Johnson describes this belief as “the continued achievement of an engineering job of the magnitude of our highway program [that] must rest upon the essential premise that here we are dealing with the lives of people. ”

“ If, in the judgment of the commission or the director, the public interest would be advanced thereby, a freeway, as defined herein, may be denominated a "controlled access highway". In all other respects, the "controlled access highway" shall be subject to all provisions of this code pertaining to freeways.
As used in this code, "State highway" means any highway which is acquired, laid out, constructed, improved or maintained as a State highway pursuant to constitutional or legislative authorization. ”

“ 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 ”

“ In 1920 the Bureau of Public Roads reported:
Due to the fact that the forest areas lie along the mountain summits, they contain the passes through which the important trunk highways must cross the mountain ranges, and as a consequence many forest road projects are links in important State and national highways. ”

“ The Federal Highway Act of 1921 provided a number of elements needed for the administration of the cooperative Federal-aid highway program. Section 23 of this Act substantially increased the funds available for the forest highways and recognized that there were two distinct classes of roads needed in the national forests. The “forest highways,” which were in many instances extensions within the forest of the State and local road system, were needed for community use and resource development ”

“ He had been head of the Bureau from 1919 to 1953, and during these years of his leadership, this Nation expanded its roadways from a scant 1⁄4 of a million miles, of which very little was hard surfaced, to 31⁄2 million miles of hard-surfaced, efficient, interstate roads; the Federal-State partnership in roadbuilding was developed and refined; the Alaska Highway was built and the Pan American Highway was well underway; and many of his staff worked with other countries in developing their roads and further training their engineers. ”

“ 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. ”