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America's Interstates: The Next 50 Years
New funding, technology, materials
and methods will shape a generation of roads
By Bruce Buckley
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As America celebrates
the 50th anniversary of the Interstate highway system,
road builders weigh its construction successes against
the growing problems of the nation's freeways-chronic
underfunding, deferred maintenance and congestion.
Courtesy of Arizona DOT |
In June 1956, president Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation
that would help shape a nation. The Federal-Aid Highway Act
of 1956 paved the way for the creation of the Interstate highway
system-a vision that today connects people nationwide via
a 42,795-mile network of roads.
Eisenhower's foresight helped create the backbone of U.S.
economic growth, reduced congestion on local and state roads
and helped improve road safety. But even Eisenhower couldn't
have imagined today's demands on the highway system caused
by tremendous population growth and the subsequent increase
in licensed drivers, at a time when funding sources are becoming
scarce. As the industry celebrates the 50th anniversary of
the Interstate, experts are looking at ways to address the
system's growing needs over the next five decades.
Since 1956, the U.S. population has grown 81.5%, to 298.2
million, and estimates suggest the population by 2056 could
hit 437.2 million, a 46.6% increase from today. During the
same period, the number of licensed drivers has grown 163.5%,
to 204.7 million. In 50 years, that number could hit 382.6
million, or an 86.9% increase.
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ORIGINS OF THE U.S. HIGHWAY
INTERSTATE SYSTEM
1938
Federal Aid Highway Act of 1938 directs the Bureau of
Public Roads, the predecessor of the Federal Highway
Administration, to study the feasibility of a toll-financed
system of 3 east-west and 3 north-south super highways.
BPR instead recommends a 26,700-mile interregional highway
network.
1941
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints a National
Interregional Highway Committee to evaluate the possibility
of a national expressway system. The committee's report,
issued in January 1944, supports a 33,900-mile system,
plus an additional 5,000 miles of auxiliary urban routes.
1944
Congress calls for up to 40,000 miles of national highways,
connecting cities and industrial centers to help serve
national defense needs.
1947
Feds select the first 37,700 miles of routes but no
funds are authorized specifically for the Interstate
system.
1952
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1952 authorizes the first
funding specifically for system construction, but only
a token amount-$25 million per year for fiscal years
'54 and '55.
1956
President Eisenhower enacts the Federal-Aid Highway
Act of 1956, which increases the proposed length to
41,000 miles, calls for nationwide design standards
for the system and sets the federal government's share
of the project cost at 90%. Title II of the act creates
the Highway Trust Fund as a dedicated funding source
for the Interstate system.
1968
The system is expanded to 42,500 miles Scheduled for
completion in the 1990s, the system is projected at
42,795 miles, connecting 286 of the 366 U.S. cities
with a population of over 50,000, 45 of the 50 state
capitals, and the U.S. capital.
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Faced with that kind of growth, today's Interstate is not
expanding fast enough to handle demand, says Charles Potts,
CEO of Heritage Construction and Materials, Indianapolis.
"You've heard the saying, 'Build it and they will come,'"
he says. "Well, we haven't built it, and they've already
come."
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta says the basic
issues of interconnectivity have been addressed since the
days of Eisenhower. But as he looks toward the next 50 years,
congestion relief and capacity building should be the focus.
"We need to focus on the intermodal nature of traffic
growth," he says. "As you look at the next 20 years,
the growth in traffic from imports and exports alone will
put a tremendous load on the system. We've got to be able
to take traffic that's generated from the maritime trade and
then put it on highway and rail and move it to the interiors."
If anything can cloud the vision of Interstate progress,
it's funding. Experts note that the traditional fuels tax
model is falling well short of financial demand. The American
Road & Transportation Builders Association in Washington,
D.C., already estimates the Highway Trust Fund could reach
zero balance by 2009.
Increasing the fuels tax has proven politically unpopular,
especially as prices at the pump push above $3 a gallon. Plus,
cars are becoming more fuel efficient, further eroding the
revenue stream.
With traditional models failing, Interstate projects are
increasingly looking toward alternative funding sources, including
public-private partnerships and tolling.
SAFETEA-LU, the massive transportation bill passed by Congress
in 2005, contains provisions that encourage public-private
partnerships, including expanded opportunities in private
activity bonds and loans available under the Transportation
Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act.
Such partnerships are fueling the nation's most ambitious
Interstate plan-the Trans-Texas corridor. The 600-mile corridor
is being funded through a development agreement between the
joint venture of Spain's Cintra and San Antonio-based Zachry
Construction Corp., and the Texas Dept. of Transportation.
It includes a $6- billion investment from Cintra-Zachry to
design and construct a 316-mile-long toll road section.
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Arizona Contractor Pioneered
Interstate Work in Southwest
With the promise of major Interstate work on the horizon,
many contractors in the late 1950s and early 1960s were
prepared to go for broke.
Tom S. Royden, former president of Royden Construction,
Phoenix, says his company began ramping up in the late
1950s, hoping to take on Interstate work as a full-service
highway contractor. "We were complete turnkey contractors
except for heavy rock work," Royden recalls. "We
had grown bigger and bigger with each new job as we
went along."
In 1958 Royden landed one of the state's first Interstate
jobs, a stretch of I-10 between Tucson and Benson. The
project added two new lanes along the existing U.S.
Route 80, creating an eastbound lane of the future I-10.
 The
following year, the company moved on to a concrete interchange
at Red Rock on I-10 between Tucson and Casa Grande.
By 1963 Royden was working on its biggest job yet-the
$1.63-million Quartzsite bypass. The project included
twin bridges, three traffic interchanges and several
box culverts. The company had purchased a fleet of scrapers,
along with other equipment, and even started using early
computer-generated scheduling.
Then the work dried up. Talk in Washington about potential
fraud and price-fixing on the Interstate system led
to investigations that tied up a lot of funding, Royden
says.
"We all geared up to do a lot of work, and it
just didn't come out that fast," he adds. "The
jobs just dribbled out. We all thought we'd make windfall
profits, but it just didn't turn out that way. A lot
of contractors from back then are no longer around."
After underbidding a few jobs, Royden nearly closed
his shop. He sold off equipment in 1967 and worked to
rebuild the business.
Today, Royden Construction is run by Tom's son, Tom
W. Royden, with a focus on bridge work.
"He does a lot of work on Interstates today,"
the elder Royden says. "It makes me want to tear
my hair out to think about what happened back then,
but my son has made more since I retired [in 1995] than
all of our contracts had made collectively before that."
Photo: courtesy of Arizona DOT
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Existing Interstates also are being leased to help fund future
improvements. In 2004 the Chicago Skyway was leased for 99
years, to the Spanish-Australian consortium of Cintra Macquarie,
for $1.8 billion. The state of Indiana signed a $3.8-billion
contract in April to lease the Indiana Toll Road to Cintra
Macquarie for 75 years.
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| In 2004 in one of the
first deals of its kind, the Chicago Skyway was leased
for 99 years to the Spanish-Australian consortium of Cintra
Macquarie for $1.8 billion. |
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Early construction of
the I-225 underpass at 6th Avenue in Aurora, Colo.
Photo by Ralph Peters of Commercial Photography. Courtesy
of the Colorado DOT |
Richard Norment, executive director of the National Council
for Public Private Partnerships, says he has seen a spike
in interest in public-private partnerships this year. Texas
and Virginia have experimented with the model for nearly a
decade, but Norment said discussions of PPP are now going
on in nearly a dozen states.
Norment says it is an alternative that will gain favor out
of necessity. "It's going to be a slow process,"
he adds. "We've had 50 years of experience with Uncle
Sam paying for our Interstates, but people are also upset
with gas prices and don't want to increase the gas tax. If
the Highway Trust Fund isn't sufficient, what's going to happen
to our roads?"
Jim Riley, transportation services chairman at Kansas City-based
design and engineering firm HNTB, estimates that as much as
20% of Interstate funding in the next five years could come
from private sources. "There's going to be a boom in
the amount of urban Interstates that will be financed by private
money because our gas tax isn't going anywhere in the next
five years," he says.
Public-private partnerships underscore shifting roles in
the development of Interstates. Since the 1980s, there have
been ongoing discussions about "devolution," giving
more power to the states to address their own needs. It's
a trend that Mineta says needs even more discussion today.
"Mayors and governors know more about what their problems
are and how to solve them than someone at the federal level,"
he says. "I want bottom-up solutions rather than top-down
solutions."
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Iowa Paver Looks Back, Praises
Interstate System
During the 1960s, the need to keep Interstate work
flowing in Iowa sometimes verged on desperate. Bert
Sewell, president of Hallet Construction Co., Des Moines,
says the limited number of pavers who could handle Interstate
work was stretched thin during those boom years.
"There were counties that couldn't get work done
on their roads until almost a year later because of
all the Interstate work out there," he recalls.
Sewell heard a lot of tales from the heyday when he
joined the company in the early 1970s. His boss, Slim
Aspholm, used to tell a story about a cold day in Colfax,
Iowa, in the mid-1960s.
Hallet Construction was trying to finish up the final
1,000 ft of paving to complete a 20-mile section of
I-80 as winter was setting in. Snow covered the ground
and crews had piled layers of burlap and straw on the
site, trying to keep it from freezing.
 Just
before Thanksgiving, Aspholm got an anxious call from
the state highway commissioner demanding that the job
get finished. Aspholm explained the situation and the
commissioner agreed to meet him at the site in the morning.
"When they showed up in the morning, it was still
too cold to pave," Sewell says. "The inspector
had the thermometer lying on the pavement, and the commissioner
said, 'Come over here, young fella.' The commissioner
looked at the thermometer, pitched it over his shoulder,
looked at the inspector and said, 'From now on, Slim
tells you when we're paving.'"
Later that day, work began and the section opened up
soon after. Although the job wasn't completely "by
the book," the focus in those days was to find
ways to make President Eisenhower's vision of a national
highway system a reality.
"Thank God we've got the [Interstate highway]
system we have today," Sewell adds. "If we
were trying to build that system in today's environment,
I truly believe it wouldn't get done."
Photo: courtesy of Iowa DOT
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The federal role in the Interstate system is a major point
of debate under the National Cooperative Highway Research
Program. NCHRP has commissioned a panel that will look at
the next 50 years of the system.
Kenneth Orski, a panel member and president of Urban Mobility
Corp., Potomac, Md., says the panel will discuss the federal
government's role in expanding the system. "The feds
could remain in charge of maintaining the existing system
with the Highway Trust Fund, but any additions to the nation's
highway infrastructure would be financed by the states, perhaps
in cooperation with the private sector," he says. "That's
a scenario worthy of exploration."
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Pennsylvania Bridge Builder
Learned Lessons from Early Interstate Designs
Early in life, John McCaskie sensed opportunities would
be created by building an Interstate system. He fondly
remembers when he was in high school and drove across
New York with his father, admiring the progress on the
New York State Thruway.
"I'll never forget my father pointing out all
of the bridges being built," McCaskie says. "He
said, 'Every time they hit a road, they have to build
one. They're building all sorts of bridges.' That stuck
with me."
 After
a stint in the Navy, McCaskie went on to work in 1967
for bridge contractor, WP Dickerson & Son in Youngwood,
Pa., as a field engineer. It was a pivotal time in bridge
engineering in the area. In December of that year, the
infamous Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, W.Va., collapsed,
killing 46 people and injuring nine.
"Something like that makes you very conservative,"
he adds. "As bridge engineers, we learn to wear
three pairs of suspenders in addition to a belt."
While crews in West Virginia picked up the pieces from
the Silver Bridge disaster, McCaskie was working on
his first Interstate job-structures on two sections
of I-79 just south of Pittsburgh.
Since then McCaskie has weathered the difficult challenges
of creating safe and durable structures in a tight funding
environment.
"Back then, the push was to get the highways completed,"
he says. "They pushed for a design life of 20 to
25 years. But decks didn't last 20 years in many places.
They just tried to hold them together. Dickerson put
the decks on the bridge across the Allegheny River on
I-80 in 1969 and then re-decked it again in 1984.
"My current firm (Swank Associated Co., New Kensington,
Pa.) repaired those decks in 2000. There have been a
lot of lessons learned in design on Interstate jobs."
One lesson McCaskie hopes the public will learn is
the importance of reinvesting in the future maintenance
and growth of the Interstates.
"I'm appalled by the reluctance to fund one of
the primary economic motivators in this country,"
he says. "President Eisenhower was pretty sharp
getting people interested in the system 50 years ago."
Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania DOT
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One area where the federal government continues to have a
strong guiding role is in technology. Intelligent Transportation
Systems are being looked at as a cost-effective way to address
congestion.
Basic 511 systems are starting to roll out across the country.
The $1.67-billion T-REX project in Denver is among the new
projects that include ITS, using cameras and sensors to monitor
traffic while alerting drivers of congestion via dynamic message
signs. This year, Florida became the 23rd state to activate
511 service on its roads.
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Houston Contractor Built Its
Business with Interstate Projects
Two entrepreneurial brothers in Houston, J.K. and C.K.
Williams, were paying close attention as talk heated
up in Washington, D.C., during the 1950s about the Interstate
program.
The brothers had grown up in Long Island, N.Y., but
moved to Houston years earlier seeking their fortunes.
After a stint in the apartment construction business,
they decided the road to fortune would be paved along
with the nation's federal highways.
The Williams brothers recruited J.D. "Doug"
Pitcock, a young estimator with Farnsworth and Chambers,
and together they established Houston-based Williams
Bros. Construction Co. in 1955.
 "Our
modus operandi from the very start was built on the
American love affair with the automobile," Pitcock
says. "As long as people want to drive, they will
demand a place to drive."
Pitcock, who served as president of AGC of America in
1984, is now the owner, chairman of the board and chief
executive officer of Williams Bros., one of the largest
highway contractors in the U.S.
But Pitcock recalls that, as with many contractors,
fortune was far down the road for Williams Bros. in
the company's early days. Working from an initial $50,000
investment, the company landed nearly $500,000 in contracts
in its first year. The following year, the firm worked
on its first future Interstate project-a piece of U.S.
Route 75 that would later become I-45.
"It took us about nine years to get going,"
Pitcock recalls. "Highway construction is capital
intensive and going in with no capital is a hard thing
to do."
Fortunately for Williams Bros., the Interstate program
was growing at the same time as the company. But work
from the federal program came slowly to Texas, and the
firm took those years to establish its footing in the
state.
Starting primarily as a bridge contractor, Williams
Bros. began to build an inventory of equipment through
lease-purchase agreements with a local equipment dealer.
Over the years, the company expanded into dirt moving
and paving until it could eventually bid on bigger jobs.
In the last 50 years, Williams Bros. has built itself
up to nearly $569 million in revenue, including work
on a $1.2-billion reconstruction of I-10 west of downtown
Houston. In the last decade, the firm has been awarded
more than $2 billion in federal aid highway work.
Despite the financial hurdles faced by the federal
program these days, Pitcock remains as optimistic about
the future as he did in the 1950s.
"As long as people still love to drive, we'll
be building highways," he says. "We figure
the future looks as good as the past for us."
Photo: image courtesy of Texas DOT
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But the 50-year vision of ITS is more far-reaching. The Vehicle-Infrastructure
Integration initiative under U.S. DOT is working with vehicle
manufacturers to create information exchanges between vehicles
and traffic managers. Data from cars could be collected to
identify congestion, and traffic alerts could be sent directly
to drivers in their cars rather than via signs.
Mike Walton, professor of civil engineering at University
of Texas in Austin, says automated guideway systems could
also be created to help manage traffic. "Fifty years
down the road, I think we'll have much of the system in place,"
he says.
To handle growing traffic concerns, planners are looking
increasingly at dedicated lanes. Urban areas continue to look
at HOV and HOT lanes to help address congestion. Last year,
Virginia DOT signed a $900-million deal with Fluor Corp. to
construct four HOT lanes on portions of Interstate 495 outside
of Washington, D.C.
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Wyoming Contractor Went to 'Interstate
School'
The Interstates have proven an effective classroom
for Neil McMurry. In 1953, after McMurry had been in
the construction business for six years, he and his
partner, Vern Rissler, decided to shift their focus
from reservoir work to highway projects.
 In
1959 Casper, Wyo.-based Rissler-McMurry Co. landed its
first Interstate project, a $1.1-million job on I-25
north of Wheatland, Wyo. Until then, the firm had primarily
been dirt movers, but McMurry ramped up to handle the
scope of work on I-25, buying a crusher, leasing a hot
plant and wooing a superintendent away from a competitor.
"It was a learning process for me," McMurry
says. "I lived on the jobsites most of the time
back them. That's how I learned."
 Rissler-McMurry
got its big break in 1962 with a $3-million project
on I-80 in Cheyenne-the largest project ever awarded
in the state at the time.
"From that point on, we really began to grow,"
he recalls. "We got our first quarry and had to
learn how to operate a quarry. We did our own bridge
work because I couldn't get the work subbed. We had
everything at that point."
Today, McMurry's company owns five quarries in the
state and continues to do a "considerable amount"
of Interstate work, including a recent $20-million project
overhauling 10 miles of I-90.
"I never went to college," McMurry said.
"After World War II, I had to go out and get a
job and feed my family. But it ended up working out
pretty good."
Photo: image courtesy of Wyoming DOT
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With significant growth in truck traffic in recent decades,
many experts are pushing for dedicated truck lanes on Interstates.
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Freeway construction
of I-25 at 6th Avenue in Denver, looking south, 1957.
Photo courtesy of the Colorado DOT |
"Truck traffic has become such a big part of our economy,
we'll have to separate them from automobiles in the near future,"
says Kumares Sinha, professor of civil engineering at Purdue
University, West Lafayette, Ind.
As the nation's Interstates continue to age, the next generation
of highways could require a new generation of construction
materials and techniques. Critics argue that in a low-bid
environment, such innovations can often be stifled because
of the impact on the bottom line.
In light of this, the federal Highways for Life pilot program
is promoting innovation by providing grants for cutting-edge
state projects. For instance, Connecticut DOT is pushing the
envelope with its Q Bridge project on Interstate 95 in New
Haven. The $350-million project uses a method called extradosing,
which incorporates elements of segmental girder and cable-stayed
design. The method, which has been used successfully in Japan,
allows for long spans without high towers.
Bridges in the future also could feature evolving high-tech
materials, including fiber-reinforced polymer decks.
Leo Vecellio, CEO of Vecellio Group, West Palm Beach, Fla.,
says, given the demand to replace bridges that have reached
the end of their life cycle, he expects bridge work to be
prime testing ground for Interstate innovation.
"The bridge replacement program will have to continue
at perhaps an even higher pace than before," Vecellio
says. "If there's a place for new materials, that's it."
Despite the changing environment, the main catalysts of Eisenhower's
initiatives remain the same-building a safe, free-flowing
system that promotes economic growth.
"Our system is what has made us the world's leading
economy," says Potts, the Indianapolis contractor. "We
need to come together to create a plan that moves us forward.
The nation needs to understand again how critical our Interstates
are."
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Kansas Contractor Built First
Segment of Interstate System
David Howard, president and CEO of Koss Construction
Co., Topeka, Kan., has a picture of company founder
George C. Koss on a jobsite in Peru in 1927. In those
days, Howard says Koss had to take highway and road
work wherever he could find it.
"It shows you where we were prior to the Interstate
system," Howard explains. "Work came in bits
and pieces. It was a hit-or-miss market because there
was no comprehensive program."
In 1955 Koss worked with Congress to change that. As
president of AGC of America that year, Koss testified
on the industry's ability to deliver on President Eisenhower's
vision for the Interstate system.
 Today,
Howard says: "The question posed to him [Koss]
was: 'Can the necessary manpower, equipment and material
be assembled to get this job done?' Koss's testimony
was: 'Yes it can.'"
The following year, Koss Construction signed the first
contract on the Interstate system and delivered its
first project on I-70 in Shawnee County, Kan.
The Interstate program brought Koss and other highway
contractors a plan they could build a business around.
Contractors had the confidence to make capital investments
in equipment and provide more long-term employment opportunities.
"Today's investments in equipment and people's
salaries and benefits could be paid in the long-term
instead of through a hodge-podge of projects,"
Howard says.
Koss Construction doesn't have to go to South America
to find work these days. In just the last decade, the
firm has reconstructed nearly 250 miles of concrete
Interstates through 18 separate contracts in three Midwestern
states.
One of the those contracts came in 2004 when the company
reconstructed the same stretch of I-70 it built to kick
off the Interstate highway program 50 years ago.
Photo: image courtesy Kansas DOT
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