Evening star., 1939-11-16
R. Financing
For Through City,
Roads 10 Be Sought
Senator Hayden to
Submit Bill Allowing
Lund Purchase Aid
BY J. A. O'LEARY.

e~~-~-A~
The next session of Congress will
be asked to consider making r. F.. C..
financing available to States. cities
and the Federal Public Roads Ad-
ministration for cooperative i'm
provement of arterial highways
through and around congested
cities, Senator Hayden, Democrat,
of Arizona said today.
Interstate vehicular traffic al
ready moves freely over the Fed
eral-aid highway system in the open
country. but encounters heavy con-
gestion in passing through big
cities, the Arizona Senator pointed
out.
Cities have moved slowly in de-
veloping depressed or elevated
through" highways, he explained,
because of the difficulties involved
in acquiring land for adequate
rights of way for such projects.
The regular Federal-aid system
provides annual appropriations to
aid the States in highway construc-
ton, but is not available for acqui-
sition of land.
Would Provide Two Courses.
Under the proposed legislation,
States and municipalities could
either borrow directly from R. F. C..
to acquire these rights of way
through congested cities, or enter
into agreements under which the
Federal road agency would con-
demn the land with r. F. c. funds
and be reimbursed by the State or
city over a period of not more than
> 20 years.
Although Senator Hayden and
Representative Cartwright of Okla
homa, leading authorities on high
way legislation. have drafted sep
arate bill to provide for the R. F. C..
financing, the present plan is to urge
it's inclusion as an amendment in
the regular biennial authorization
for Federal-aid highway construc-
ton, which will come up in the
January session.
For a number of years there has
been discussion in Congress of a
proposed system of transcontinental
superhighWays, with grade separa-
tions, to be financed by toll charges.
Called upon to report on such pro-
gram, however, the Bureau of Public
Roads advised Congress last spring
that a direct toll system on such
highways, in their entirety, would
not be feasible as a means of recov-
ering the entire cost of the facili-
ties"
Points to City Jams.
In that report the Federal agency
outlined instead the more urgent
need of relieving congestion in cities
through which large volumes of in
terstate traffic must pass.
The report further presented sta
tistics to show that belt lines or by
passes around cities cannot be relied
on to relieve congestion.
"As previously pointed out" the
report continued, the traffic on a
main highway approaching a large
city that will use bypass route if
offered is small part of the total.
BY far the greater part is originated
in or destined to points in the city,
and largely points near its center or
customarily reached by travelling
through the center"
Plans Outlined.
The report outlined plans and
drawings to show how wide, de-
pressed highways for through traffic,
flanked by one-way surface lanes,
could be built through these congest-
ed cities, if long-range financing was
available for land acquisition. The
R. F. C. amendment Senator Hayden
will offer to the next Federal-aid
highway bill is designed to pave the
way for these improvements.
In many cities, Senator Hayden
explained today, there are areas of
old buildings that have deteriorated
in use and value as the business sec
tion spreads out. Where such areas
abut on streets that are natural
traffic lanes across the city, the plan
would be to acquire them for wider
rights of way, on which to build
low-level through highways, below
the grade of slow-moving surface
traffic.