embankments and made long hauls a routine operation. The roadbed of the then-modern highway, even though it was only two lanes in width, afforded sufficient room for turning and maneuvering. When compared with unit construction costs for the earlier years, earthwork became the best bargain in the entire roadbuilding operation.
Connecticut’s route 11 preserves the natural rock formations and vegetation by varying the width of the median.
The trends toward steeper gradients was arrested, if not reversed, by these developments. However, it was not until 1950 or later that a consensus was arrived at and anything approaching standardization of maximum grades was developed by AASHO.
Design Effects on the Environment
Highway construction inevitably left scars upon the landscape. These were not particularly objectionable until the era of heavy cuts and fills and relatively wide roadbeds that accompanied the design concepts of the 1930’s. Most State highway departments had programs for roadside development prior to that time, some as early as 1912. These programs consisted largely of planting trees and shrubs. These were reasonably successful prior to 1930 but were not adequate for the true automobile road. As one writer described the situation in 1936:
The quite common belief that the adoption and execution of a mere beautification program for our highways satisfies even the most obvious requirements and potentialities of roadside development is both incorrect and disheartening. We must sadly admit that much of our present so-called roadside improvement is little more than a landscape hair-cut or perhaps a horticultural manicure.
What is now most needed is to set up a better type of organization with engineering and landscape departments properly coordinated and working in harmony.[1]
This advice was heeded, at least in part, but the demands for more miles of paved highways and for widening and straightening existing ones continued to take the lion’s share of the highway dollar. Much credit is clue the National Park Service for their insistence upon the incorporation of esthetic quality in the design of national parkways. An outstanding example of the good results that could be produced by the joint efforts of landscape architects and highway design engineers may be found in the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway which was designed and constructed by the Bureau of Public Roads for the Park Service during the period 1929–1932.
Credit is also due to the membership of two committees within the highway fraternity—the Committee on Roadside Development of the American Association of State Highway Officials and a similarly named group in the Highway Research Board. Initially in 1932, these two groups were established as a joint committee but were separated in 1939 under their parent organizations. The term “complete highway” was coined by these committees to describe succinctly the importance of blending into a highway the fundamental elements of design, construction, and maintenance. The complete highway had to incorporate utility, safety, beauty, and economy to satisfy this very sound concept.
- ↑ H. Kelsey, The Future of Roadside Development In Massachusetts, (Address delivered at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Forest and Park Association in Boston, Mass., Feb. 6, 1936) pp. 1, 2.
