Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-10-13
Federal Highway Work
Plans Future System
VAST PROGRAM OF ROAD WORK
FOR COMING YEARS is
AIM OF GOVT.

Fifteen to twenty years of building
good roads lie ahead of the United
States Under the program which the
country has adopted there will be
built, during that time, 10000 miles
of improved highways which will con-
stitute the Federal-aid highway sys-
tenn and an equal or greater mileage
of State and local roads. When the
great job is done, the transportation
facilities of the country will far ex-
coed those of any other nation, past
or present, in the, world The high
ways of the ancient Romans, whose
fame has come down through the cen
turtles, will pale by comparison.
Details of this vast road, building
program are to be placed before the
Highway Education Board at it's con-
ference in Washington October 26 to
%, inclusive, by State Highway En-
gineers and officials of the Bureau of
Public Roads, United States Depart
ment of Agriculture, to whom has
been entrusted the work of planning
and supervising the construction of
Federal-aid highways. The plan will
be presented to enable the Board to
proceed authoritatively with it's work
leges to which road-builders of the
country are turning for competent
highway engineers.
Officials of the bureau place the
aggregate cost of the Federal-aid pro-
gram alone at about $3,OO0,0OO, 900
spread over the twenty-year period
They base this estimate on an average
cost Of $4,000 per mile. The average
cost, in turn, takes into consideration
all classes of improved roadways
from the cheapest to the most expen-
sive types. Approximately one-third of
the proposed system, or $4,000 miles of
improved highways, already are either
built or building
The program is new one. Up to
comparatively recent years, road
building in the United States had been
conducted without special regard to a
national system Highways had been
constructed where needed without
considering whether they would link
up in the most effective mannGr with
no ,rlIo or Of Ia ~ he
spread over the Nation. Engineers had
sought more to meet immediate and
local demands than the broader re-
quirements of the States and nation.
The present Federal-aid road-build-
ing program, officials of the bureau
state, will contemplate the construc-
ion of only such roads as fit into the
national program and contribute to
the national system. At the same time
the roads will be so selected as to
serve the most important local require
ments. With marked notifications,
the system adopted in building the
railways of the country will be borne
in mind in the construction of the
country's new highways. There will
be main lines of highway communica-
ton between centers and thousands of
miles Of feeder roads, reaching back
into the more sparsely settled regions
and into the rich agricultural sections,
to tap areas whose population and
products will flow over the new sys-
tenn.
New roads will be planned and built
thousands of miles of them where
they will fit in most advantageously
with the entire program. The bureau
is continuing its research work into
most efficient methods of oad-building,
including the character and wearing
power of materials, resisting qualities
Of varying subsoils, ETC., and has
amassed a considerable store of valu-
able information all of which will be
available for the highway engineer of
tomorrow, whom the board is seeking
to have educated in practical and mod
ern methods.