August 22, 2013

Did You Know?

AASHO provided strong support for the creation of the Interstate Highway System, with association officials spending considerable time before Congress testifying on behalf of that proposed program.

The end result of that legislative process was the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law on June 29, 1956. Title I of that law authorized $25 billion as the federal share for the cost of building that highway network between 1957 and 1969, while Title II established the Highway Trust Fund and stipulated that the program would operate on a pay-as-you-go basis.

AASHO has also played a critical role when it comes to various standardization features involving the Interstate Highway System. Within a couple of weeks after the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 became law, the association adopted geometric design standards for the Interstate highways that were subsequently approved by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads. In 1957, AASHO developed a numbering scheme for that highway network (with the current policy dating back to 1973) and also adopted the Interstate Shield for placement along those routes.

The Interstate Highway System (now officially known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and part of the National Highway System of the U.S.) enlarged the federal and state roles in highway financing and construction. That network, which now has a total length of 47,182 miles, has become the nation's socioeconomic backbone. While representing only one percent of the nation's total highway mileage, it carries 24 percent of all traffic and 41 percent of all truck traffic.

The original portion of the Interstate Highway System took 35 years to complete at a cost of $114 billion.

Additional information on the Interstate Highway System is available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/homepage.cfm.