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 A REPORT OF FACTORS FOR USE IN APPORTIONING FUNDS FOR THE NATIONAL SYSTEM OF INTERSTATE AND DEFENSE HIGHWAYS

PURPOSE OF REPORT

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, section 108 (d), requires the Secretary of Commerce to submit to the Congress within 10 days subsequent to January 2, 1958, an estimate of the cost of completing the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

The purpose of the estimate is to derive the ratio of cost of completing the Interstate System in each State to the cost of completing the system in all of the States to serve as a basis for apportioning funds authorized for the fiscal years 1960, 1961, and 1962. The 1956 act sports this method of apportionment in order to carry out its stated objective of completing the Interstate System simultaneously in all States.

The estimate presented herein is the first of a series to be submitted to the Congress in accordance with the 1956 act. Revised estimates must be submitted in January of 1962, 1966, 1967, and 1968, to establish the ratios for purposes of apportioning funds for the fiscal years 1963-69.

THE DESIGNATED SYSTEM COVERED BY THIS ESTIMATE

The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, known as the Interstate System, was designated under authority given in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944. This system was not to exceed 40,000 miles in total length and was to be located to connect by routes as direct as practicable, the principal metropolitan areas, cities, an industrial centers, to serve the national defense, and connect at suitable border points with the routes of continental importance in the Dominion of Canada and the Republic of Mexico.

The Interstate System was selected by joint action of the State highway departments and the Bureau of Public Roads, and routes comprising an estimated 37,700 miles were designated on August 2, 1947. Additional routes limited to those around and through the urban areas, totaling an estimated 2,300 miles, were designated in September 1955. Pending the necessary engineering studies to determine the most economic alinements, the location of these routes was diagrammatic only, and for convenience and in the absence of detailed engineering studies, their lengths were measured along the existing principal highways.

Section 108 (1) of the 1956 act increased the authorized length of the Interstate System from 40,000 to 41,000 miles. Moreover, in developing the estimates for this report, the States found that by more accurate measurement and by the selection of better locations 1