Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/220

{|
 * Date of Creation
 * Organization Title
 * Parent Organization
 * Title of Top Executive
 * July 1, 1949
 * Bureau of Public Roads
 * General Services Administration
 * Commissioner
 * Aug. 20, 1949
 * Bureau of Public Roads
 * Dept. of Commerce
 * Commissioner (1956 became Federal Highway Administrator)
 * Apr. 1, 1967
 * Federal Highway Administration
 * Dept. of Transpor
 * Administrator
 * }
 * Federal Highway Administration
 * Dept. of Transpor
 * Administrator
 * }

Following the enactment of the Federal Aid Road Act on July 11, 1916, with its initiation of the cooperative Federal-aid highway program, the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering (OPRRE) created a formal field organization. The field work was organized into 10 districts, each headed by a District Engineer. At the Washington headquarters level, all of the existing divisions were grouped into two branches—the Engineering Branch and the Management and Economics Branch—headed by a Chief Engineer and a Chief of Management, respectively. In addition, two General Inspectors, independent of the branches, reported directly to the Director of OPRRE. This reorganization in fiscal year 1917 established the firistfirst [sic] formal field structure of the OPRRE with delegated operating responsibility and authority.

Because of the large amount of forest road work in the West and the passage of the 1921 Federal Highway Act enlarging the Federal-aid program, a western regional office under a Deputy Chief Engineer, Dr. L. I. Hewes, was created in 1921 to supervise the work in the 11 western States and to dispose of a large number of routine matters without reference to Washington. In effect, the Western Headquarters, as it was called, was an extension of the Washington Office located in San Francisco. This permitted more efficient communication on matters needing the Secretary’s approval and reduced travel costs.

Another organizational change made in 1921 to help meet the demands of the accelerating program, was to divide the Engineering Branch in Washington into a Division of Design to handle all applications and steps preliminary to the execution of the Project Agreement, including the review and approval of the plans, specifications and estimates (PS&E), and a Division of Construction to monitor the construction work in progress, to check construction estimates (reimbursement claims) submitted by the States, and to monitor the maintenance of roads after construction. A Division of Control was also established to include all program and project accounting, budget activities, fiscal accounting, payrolling, purchasing, and equipment and supplies. By June 30, 1922, the staff of BPR had reached a total of 784, representing 297 in Washington and 487 in the field.

In fiscal year 1925 an office was established in Hawaii under the jurisdiction of the Western Headquarters and in fiscal year 1930, because of the reconnaissance survey proposed for the Inter-American Highway, an office was set up in Panama. Later division offices were established in each of the Central American countries. As of April 1930, the BPR had a total permanent staff of 976 persons, of whom 461 were engineers.

An Eastern Parks and Forests District was created in January 1934 to handle all forest and park work east of the Rocky Mountains together with miscellaneous direct Federal construction work in the East for other Federal agencies.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 authorized a greatly expanded postwar highway program providing authorizations for fiscal years 1946, 1947 and 1948 at the unprecedented level of $500 million per year, plus $25 million per year for forest highways. Recognizing that a considerably larger staff and extensive decentralization would be necessary in the field, a major reorganization of the Public Roads Administration was initiated July 1, 1945.

In July 1953 a further decentralization move was taken to delegate approval authority to the lowest practicable level, thereby eliminating or reducing the duplication of checking and reviewing project documents at the successive layers of organization. This delegation went to the BPR District Engineer in each State for final approval of plans, specifications and estimates.

The Inter-American Highway which today is complete except for the segment in the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia. 214