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12 Some of the individual States in recent years have undertaken special studies to measure their future needs in terms of the anticipated demands of traffic, and the results of those studies tend to substantiate the fundamental validity of the nationwide estimates referred to above which have been furnished to the Committee. None of these studies would have been possible without the vast storehouse of data accumulated and analyzed through the continuing highway planning surveys conducted over the last two decades by the State highway departments in cooperation with the United States Bureau of Public Roads.

The estimates of need show that a 10-year construction program to modernize all of our roads and streets will require expenditure of $101 billion. This figure cannot properly be compared with any previous estimate of the Nation’s road needs because none has ever before been made on the same basis. Earlier estimates producing figures of about half the present amount were based on traffic conditions and road deficiencies which existed at the time of the studies. In this latest survey, however, traffic volumes expected to be reached in 10 to 20 years from completion of the systems have been used, producing a much more realistic determination of the requirements to be met during the reasonable life of the improvement. For example, an estimate made for the interstate system in 1948 without any regard for the future requirements caused by further growth already is obsolete because of a 40 percent increase in travel since that time.

The preliminary 10-year totals of needs by road systems are:

CONTROLLED ACCESS HIGHWAYS

The interstate system which carries the top national economic and defense priority is planned for completion in 10 years. One of its principal features is provision for adequate right-of-way to permit control of access to the highway itself. Otherwise, experience shows that the facility becomes prematurely obsolete due to developments crowding against the roadway which made it unfit for the purposes for which it was designed. Control of access to the degree required by traffic conditions is essential to the protection of life and property. It is also essential to preserve the capacity of the highway. So far as the investment of funds in major roads is concerned, provision for control of access to the extent required by traffic is fundamental. It assures that roads financed by the sale of bonds will still be serving efficiently when the bonds mature at a future date. Even though control of access may not be essential to a particular section of road at the time of construction, provision should be made for future control, when it becomes necessary.

Present highway inadequacy results in part from the need to replace highways which have become unsafe and limited in capacity because of unlimited and uncontrolled access. We must not repeat