far below the compensation of many State highway executives. The American Association of State Highway Officials had recommended Thomas H. MacDonald, Chief Engineer of the Iowa State Highway Commission for the position, and MacDonald was willing to accept if more adequate compensation could be provided.
With roadbuilding severely limited during the war and a slow postwar start, many roads were still a quagmire each spring.
When nearly 4 months had passed without filling the position, the highway departments began to get restless, and some suggested that the hiatus in direction was affecting the work of the Bureau and delaying project approvals. This was denied, and on April 1, 1919, MacDonald was appointed “engineer in immediate charge of the work under the Federal aid road act” pending a reexamination by Congress of the Director’s compensation.[1] On July 1, 1919, he was appointed to fill the vacant directorship, with the title of Chief of Bureau, at a salary of $6,000 per year.
Highway Building Gets Off to a Slow Start
Less than half a million dollars of the funds authorized by the Federal Aid Boad Act had been paid out to the States when the war ended in November 1918. This left $29.5 million available for fiscal year 1919, to which Congress added another $50 million in the Post Office Appropriation Bill. After deducting 3 percent for BPR Administration, about $77 million were available to the States for their 1919 programs.[2]
Large as this sum seemed, it was only a small part of the funds voted for roads in 1919. Besides the $110 million already authorized in Pennsylvania and Illinois, Michigan, California, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada authorized another $114.8 million worth of bonds, and bond issues carried in dozens of counties, some for very large sums.[N 1][4] Without counting the cities, which were also preparing large street programs, the funds available for new construction in 1919 were well over $400 million.[5] This was about five times the amount spent under State supervision in 1918 for new construction.
For a variety of reasons, the States were slow getting started on their 1919 programs. Many did not have plans ready, and in some States, the bond funds and Federal-aid matching money did not become available until the construction season was well advanced. Early in the year there was a shortage of trained highway engineers.[N 2] There was also a shortage of contractors and construction equipment.
- ↑ For example, on July 1, 1919, St. Louis County, Minnesota, approved $7.5 million of road bonds by a 9 to 1 margin. This was the largest sum ever authorized for roads in any county of the United States up to that time. About the same time the Dallas County, Texas, voters approved an issue of $6.5 million for road and bridge bonds. In both of these States, the counties were required to match Federal-aid funds rather than the State.[3]
- ↑ At this time about one-fifth of all the trained highway engineers were still in the Army. The French Government had requested the United States to reconstruct the roads worn out by American military operations, and to do this the Army kept the engineer troops overseas the best part of the summer of 1919.
- ↑ New Roads Official Named, Public Roads, Vol. 1, No. 11, Mar. 1919, p. 3.
- ↑ BPR, supra, note 20, p. 8.
- ↑ Largest County Bond Issue, Public Roads, Vol. 2, No. 15, Jul. 1919, p. 7.
- ↑ A. Anderson, State Highway Mileages And Expenditures in the Year 1918, Public Roads, Vol. 2, No. 15, Jul. 1919, p. 3.
- ↑ Authorized Road Bond Issues Total Nearly $500,000,000, Engineering News-Record, Vol. 84, No. 4, Jan. 22, 1920, p. 202.
