1

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT ROADS – PART III

THE WESTERN OREGON ROADS MAINTENANCE PROGRAM IS 

TRANSFERRED TO THE BLM

FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH BILL MALTBY, SEPTEMBER 2010

The Western Oregon Roads Maintenance Program had been housed with the Federal Projects Office in 

Vancouver since 1972. Negotiations between FHWA and the BLM would permanently move the 

program into the Bureau of Land Management.

The Western Oregon Roads Maintenance 

Program had been entrusted to the Federal Highway 

Administration and its predecessor agency, the 

Bureau of Public Roads, from the 1950’s to the 

early 1970’s. These roads provided access to timber 

lands belonging to the Bureau of Land 

Management, and William E. Maltby, FHWA’s 

chief of the program since 1969, had seen it through 

its period of greatest growth.

About the time that program operations 

were moved from Salem, Oregon, to Vancouver,

Washington, and from a Federal-aid office to a 

Federal lands office, Bill Maltby became aware of 

rumblings in the higher echelons of FHWA and the 

BLM suggesting that the program might be 

changing agencies. It was around 1974, he said, 

and in FHWA headquarters, there was a feeling 

“that this operation was kind of a country 

cousin....There was talk going on between the 

Washington offices about moving the program out 

of here.”

Those in the field had a much different 

opinion about it than those in Washington. The 

man who was the BLM State Director in the early 

1970’s “didn’t want to move it out of FHWA,”

Bill said. “We had it coordinated and...it was 

really operating smooth.” This was partly due to 

the camaraderie and close cooperation between the 

BLM and FHWA field people. “If you wanted to 

move something from Medford to Eugene, you

Members of the Walton WORM crew were recipients of safety awards 

July 10, 1980. From left they are Mike Eastman, Arnold Haynes, Dean 

Barnhardt, Roger Bethel, Richard L. Enders, Bill Maltby. Not 

pictured: Bob McKinney. Photo courtesy Bill Maltby.
2

could move it on a temporary basis. If you 

wanted to move it from Eugene to Coos 

Bay” he went on, “you didn’t have to go to 

the BLM district manager.”

At that time, funding for the BLM 

road maintenance program was paid out of 

the timber programs at the request of the 

“O&C counties,” the counties that 

incorporated some of the lands originally 

given to the Oregon & California

Railroad Company. “Those funds were not 

steady,” Bill said. In fact, they operated 

much “like the stock market. Up one 

month, down one month.”

In order to even out these peaks 

and valleys, FHWA bought and maintained 

all the equipment. “(FHWA) rented it back 

to the BLM, essentially.” Bill explained

that “we had it on a certain life span and 

we paid for this equipment by rental.” 

They also supplemented the program with

Federal Lands funds. 

“The fact that they were able to 

work through the FLHP stabilized the 

programs,” Bill said, and this advantage 

did not go unrecognized by the State 

Director. “In his discussions among (his) 

people, (he said), ‘this is one of the reasons 

I want to keep this in FHWA hands.’”

At one time Bill had promoted the 

idea among BLM managers that they apply 

for Federal Lands monies to help get the 

same type of support as the Forest Service, 

Park Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs 

received. “It was 1972, 1973....I said ‘why 

don’t you people go to FHWA and get 

more funds for your public lands roads 

maintenance?’ Well supposedly they did,” 

he said, but what they submitted was 

apparently too general in nature, “and the 

FHWA, of course, said ‘wait a minute, this 

is not much of a program here. We need 

more justification.’” BLM, he said, 

decided it was “too much work, we’ll do it 

with our own funds.”

With the inconsistent nature of the 

public lands funds, however, “the 

maintenance done on the roads was 

practically nil. We’d go out and there’d be 

a trail; there wouldn’t be a road, there’d be 

a trail, (and) you’d want an ATV instead.”

Above and top: Wells Creek-Vincent Road, early 1970’s. 

Photo courtesy Bill Maltby.
3

Around 1974 that particular State Director was 

transferred to BLM headquarters in Washington, DC, and 

another person took over the program for Western Oregon. 

Immediately the district managers—he recalled “there were 

two that were really instigators—started working with the 

(new) state director to see about moving the program out of 

the FHWA.”

There was also some impetus on the part of 

FHWA, both internally and politically, Bill admitted. “I 

hate to say it, but I think that FHWA...was beginning to 

feel that this was kind of a thorn in their sides....

“One period when Nixon was in there, personnel 

became an issue....They were saying ‘we’ll cut down the 

expenses of FHWA by getting rid of some of these 

personnel.’ Well one way to do it” was to cut the entire

Western Oregon Roads Maintenance Program, “and 

‘Bingo!’...We got rid of 100 people.’

“Then about 1975-76...BLM and FHWA came to 

an agreement that they would move the “program into the 

BLM,” Bill said, “much to my chagrin—and 

everybody’s....You had some fellows that had been with 

FHWA for 10 or 15 years and they were managed well and 

cooperation was great and there was a strong group feeling 

among everybody, even...upper level management.”

Once the decision was made, “FHWA and BLM sat 

down—the state director and the different organizations 

within the group—sat down and discussed the issues.” 

There had been many things that worked well while the 

program was under FHWA, “like the procurement. We had 

our own procurement offices.” There were also a number 

of issues to be resolved, and “there was quite a bit of 

worry,” Bill said, between “the local management—our 

management here—and the Regional Office.”

BLM’s answer to the issues brought to the table

“was that we can do everything you can do and everything 

would be smooth. Well sadly it wasn’t,” he said. As soon 

as the program had been moved, “the district managers

started in on the state director and said ‘this thing should be 

out in the districts, we should be running this program.’”

The State Director was apparently not convinced, 

and decided a study should be done before any changes 

were made. “The man that was in charge of their technical 

services office...was about ready to retire,” and the State 

Director appointed him to the task. “He made a review, 

went out to the people out in the field...talked to the state 

BLM people,” Bill related and “the gist of his report was to 

keep it in the state office under a centralized management 

just like FHWA had it.” That structure, he said, “gives a lot 

of freedom to the people in the field to move...around as 

needed. That keeps the number of people and the 

equipment down.”

From an Oregon BLM Resource Map, © 1984. 

WORM crews maintained roads to many of 

these recreation sites. 

Map courtesy Bill Maltby.
4

But pressures from the districts finally 

prevailed. “I think it was probably about 1980, we 

got a new state director and the State Director 

bowed to the District Managers and moved the 

things out to the districts.” Bill was still working in 

the State Office, and “all I had was an equipment 

specialist...working for me (who) wrote all the 

specifications for the equipment for purchases and 

presented it to the procurement people.”

Ironically, had the Western Oregon Roads 

Maintenance program not been moved to BLM, it 

would soon have been required to find a new home 

within FHWA. 

The equipment depot which Bill Maltby 

managed in the Federal Projects Office facility in 

Vancouver occupied what was originally known as 

“Building B,” only a small section of which still 

remains. In 1977, in anticipation of the widening of 

the I-5 freeway, FHWA ceded most of that building 

and all of an adjacent building that fronted on Fifth 

Street to the state right-of-way office.

Among other favorite memories of the WORM 

program, Bill Maltby recalled that “the 

procurement people ... went out of their way to 

get the things that we needed without a lot of 

hassle.” Watch for future stories that will 

highlight his contracting and purchasing 

adventures as well as his early days with FHWA 

in the foreign aid program.

Stories in this series have been developed by 

Marili Reilly from interviews and 

correspondence. Retirees who would like to 

share their memories may email

marili.reilly@dot.gov.

At left, the cover of a document in the archives of

Western Federal Lands Highway Division shows an 

earlier view of the FHWA neighborhood, including the 

building used for the equipment depot before it was 

trimmed down for I-5 construction. An administrative 

building that fronted on Fifth Street was also lost (see 

arrow).