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 SUBSTANCE OF THE 1941 REPORT

The section of the Federal-aid Highway Act of 1948, to which this report is responsive, directs first that a study be made of the status of improvement of the National System of Interstate Highways, and further requests that the report to be submitted shall supplement the report dated February 1, 1941, entitled “Highways for the National Defense,” to reflect current conditions and deficiencies.

GENESIS OF 1941 REPORT

The results of the study that has been made of the status of improvement and deficiencies of the interstate highway system are presented in the foregoing pages. Fully to supplement the 1941 report, a good deal more is required, and in order that the purposes of what follows may be clearly understood it is desirable at this point to refer to the inception of the earlier report and briefly summarize its principal findings and recommendations.

The 1941 report was requested by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a letter to John M. Carmody, Administrator, Federal Works Agency, under date of June 21, 1940, in which the President wrote as follows:

In order that we may be assured of the adequacy of our highway system to meet the needs of our national defense, I would like you, in cooperation with the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense and the War and Navy Departments, to have the Public Roads Administration of your Agency make a survey of our highway facilities from the viewpoint of national defense and advise me as to any steps that appear necessary.

I suggest that particular attention be paid to the strength of bridges, the width of strategic roads, adequacy of ingress to and egress from urban centers, and the servicing of existing and proposed Army, Navy, and Air bases. * * *

The report, Highways for the National Defense, prepared by the Public Roads Administration in response to this request of the President, was submitted to the Federal Works Administrator by the Commissioner of Public Roads under date of February 1, 1941. On the same day it was transmitted to the President.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SPECIFIC DEFENSE OPERATIONS

The report recommended two general programs of highway improvement as necessary to correct deficiencies then current. The first, and more urgent of the two, was a program intended to supply needed highway facilities for specific defense operations then developing. The needed facilities were classified as (1) reservation roads, (2) access roads, and (3) tactical roads.

Reservation roads consisted of company streets and other roads within the Federal reservation areas of Army cantonments, depots, and bases, and the various shore establishments of the Navy.

Access roads included numerous roads, each of relatively short mileage, required to give local access from main highways, railroads, 56