Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/484



As already noted, the 1956 Act permitted inclusion of toll roads in the Interstate System, although it continued to bar the use of Federal aid for toll road construction or for further improvement of such included routes. On the recommendation of the States, it was announced on August 21, 1957, that 2,102 miles of then existing toll roads in 15 States were being officially included in the System. The only sizable toll section undertaken on the designated Interstate System since 1956 is a 53-mile portion of I-95 in Maryland and Delaware. This segment was completed in 1963 and was constructed following special congressional legislation.

Although Congress in 1944 directed that the Interstate System be designated, it made no provision for special Federal funding for the construction of the System until years later. The 1952 Act included a token Interstate authorization of $25 million each for fiscal years 1954 and 1955 and the 1954 Act included $175 million for fiscal years 1956 and 1957. This “beginning” of special Interstate System funding authorization was followed by the creation of the Highway Trust Fund in 1956.

In Section 108 of the 1956 Act the Congress declared it to be essential to the national interest to provide for the early completion of the Interstate System as authorized and designated in accordance with the 1944 Act. Section 108 states it was “. . . the intent of the Congress that the Interstate System be completed as nearly as practicable over a thirteen-year period and that the entire System in all the States be brought to simultaneous completion.” There was authorized to be appropriated for fiscal years 1957–69 a total of $24.8 billion of Federal funds, to be matched by the States on a 90–10 Federal-State ratio, for the purpose of expediting the construction, reconstruction or improvement of the Interstate System. This amount combined with the unexpended balance of previous authorizations brought the total of available Federal Interstate authorization to $25.14 billion as of June 1956.

It should be noted that up to this time there had been no detailed estimate on a section-by-section basis of the cost of building the Interstate System. The $25 billion Federal authorization in the Act was based on the Clay Committee Report, in which the total System cost was stated at $27 billion—with a Federal share of $25 billion recommended.

The Congress, in the 1956 Act, recognized the changing requirements for the System and the need for up-to-date periodic estimates of the cost of completing the System and required a series of such estimates beginning in 1958.

The first of the series of periodic estimates of the cost of completing the Interstate System was submitted to the Congress in January 1958. This estimate was prepared by the individual States during calendar year 1957. To provide for uniformity of estimate procedures among the States, an instruction manual was adopted which extended the standards for design and construction of the System.

The unit price level of 1956 construction in each State was selected as a cost base. Units of construction quantities estimated for the System completion in each State were computed against this unit price base for the total cost determination. The estimate total exceeded the authorization level established by Congress 2 years earlier in the 1956 Act.

In submitting this first estimate to Congress, Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks noted:

Although this estimate shows an increase in cost over the amounts authorized by section 108(d) of the 1956 Act, I do not see any need for consideration at the present time of new legislative measures which would add to the income of the highway trust fund. This is the first estimate of a series of five and is made in the early stage of the highway program launched by the 1956 Act. As construction of the Interstate System progresses toward completion and as the amount of remaining work correspondingly decreases, future estimates of cost will be made on a broader basis of experience and these estimates will progressively become more accurate by reflecting actual trends in cost, either upward or downward, that cannot be forecast as well now. Until this additional experience is acquired, consideration of any adjustments in authorization of funds or revenues would be premature.

The 1958 estimate included only 38,548 miles of the 41,000-mile System authorized by Congress. This differential resulted from the fact that the 1,000-mile addition to the System, authorized by Congress in 1956, was specifically excluded from the estimate by provisions of the 1956 Act; and the additional 1,102 miles available for allocation October 18, 1957, became available after the cutoff date for preparation of the estimate. The total cost for the 38,548 miles was estimated to be $37.6 billion of which $33.9 billion was the Federal share, and $3.7 billion the States’ matching share.

The basic information in the 1958 estimate was supplemented by data presented in hearings conducted before the House Ways and Means Committee in July 1959, at which time preliminary cost data for the remaining 2,452 miles of the 41,000-mile System were reported. The combination of these submittals was an estimate totaling $41 billion for 41,000 miles. Of this total the Federal share was estimated to be $37 billion. This was the first detailed Interstate cost estimate submitted to the Congress which encompassed the entire System mileage authorized up to that time. No costs were included for State highway planning and research, or for Bureau of Public Roads administration and research. Since both of these activities are charged against Federal Interstate funds, the costs should have been included. This omission was corrected in the 1961 estimate.

In 1958 the Nation found itself in the grip of an extended economic recession, and acceleration of the Federal-aid Highway program was considered as one means to hasten recovery. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1958 was prepared with this objective in view. Among other provisions, it increased the annual Interstate authorizations of the 1956 Act from $2.0 billion 478