Toward the end of the forties, there was, therefore, increasing pressure from many quarters to modernize these highways to meet the growing traffic demand. The Public Roads Administration, in cooperation with the State highway departments and the Forest Service, undertook a study of the network of forest highways in the western States and Alaska and reported in 1948 that an expenditure of $40 million for each of the next 10 years would be required to provide a well balanced and adequate system.[1]
In spite of many problems, in 1949, 232 miles of forest highways were completed at a cost of $8 million and projects were under construction at the close of the year on 521 miles, estimated to cost $24 million.[2] Many important forest highway projects were either under construction or programed for improvement.
The direct Federal construction program was growing in size and complexity during the fifties. Forest highways were authorized $219 million during this period which was more than twice the amount authorized during the thirties. The amount authorized for forest development roads and trails was $222 million compared with $40 million during the thirties.
A concerted effort was made during the 1950’s to modernize the forest highways on the Federal-aid highway system that were no longer adequate. A 310-foot steel arch bridge was constructed across the Snake River in the Teton National Forest in Wyoming, and 26 miles of forest highway was built through the Snake River Canyon, becoming a part of U.S. Route 89. This opened a new route that saved from 50 to 135 miles when traveling from Utah and southeastern Idaho to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. This route permits a gradual climb to Jackson, Wyoming (elevation 6,235 feet) instead of going over the summit through Teton Pass at an elevation of 8,450 feet by tortuous mountain road. Because of the difference in elevation, the new route also made a great difference in travel conditions during the winter months.
Highways in the Territory of Alaska
In addition to the normal forest highway program, the 1950 Federal-Aid Highway Act contained a special forest highway provision of $3.5 million each for fiscal years 1951 and 1952 for the construction of new highways in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The Bureau had been building forest highways in Alaska since 1919 through an agreement with the Alaska Road Commission in the Department of the Interior. One such project was the Turnagain Arm Highway, connecting Anchorage with Seward and the Kenai Peninsula highway system. In addition, BPR, by mutual agreement with the Alaska Road Commission occasionally performed highway engineering functions throughout Alaska. By 1956, some 400 miles of forest highways at a cost of approximately $50 million had been constructed in Alaska by BPR.
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 extended the Federal-aid highway program to Alaska for the first time, and it transferred all the functions and responsibilities for the Territory’s highway program to BPR. Personnel of the Alaska Road Commission were transferred to the existing BPR Alaska at this time, and the direct responsibility for the location, surveys, design, contract administration, construction supervision, and highway maintenance of the 5,356-mile highway system placed the Bureau in the position of acting as a State highway department. In 1959, Alaska became a State, and the Alaska Omnibus Act made the State responsible for the Federal-aid highway program on a basis comparable to that of the other States.
A 10-Year Program
In 1958, Congress directed that a study be made to determine how well the forest highway system was meeting the highway transportation needs of the counties and communities that were within or adjacent to the national forests and that a 10-year program to meet these needs be prepared in cooperation with the Forest Service and the States. The report was submitted to Congress in January 1960. The report noted that:
- The roads of primary importance to the States, counties, and communities which were not designated as forest highways totaled 28,884 miles. Approximately 48 percent of this mileage was on the Federal-aid highway systems as follows:
| Interstate Highway System | 360 |
| Primary System | 2,332 |
| Secondary System | 11,272 |
| 13,964 |
- As a comparison, 82 percent, or 19,927 miles out of a total of 24,399 miles, of presently designated forest highways was on a Federal-aid system.
- It would cost approximately $2.6 billion to complete construction of all presently designated forest highways to adequate standards.
- A 10-year construction and maintenance program for roads of primary importance but which were not designated forest highways would cost a total of $803 million for construction and $237 million for maintenance.
- A similar 10-year construction and maintenance program for presently designated forest highways would cost a total of $1.4 billion for construction and $305 million for maintenance.
The report estimated that the 10-year construction programs, totaling about $2.2 billion, “could be financed by continued authorization of Federal forest-highway funds at the presently authorized level of $33 million annually, together with the use of all other funds normally expended on forest highways, including Federal-aid funds, State and local matching money, and other State and local funds.”[3]
The report recommended that, since Federal-aid funds were not eligible for maintenance of highways and, in the past, authorized funds had been fully obligated for construction of forest highways, the approximately $542 million estimated for maintenance during the 10-year period should be derived from State and local sources. The report also recommended that the apportionment of funds be continued in the historic manner.[4]
As of January 1960, national forests, or purchase units under the Weeks Act, were located in 41 States and in Puerto Rico. In all of these States, there was
494
- ↑ Bureau of Public Roads Annual Report, 1948, pp. 24, 35.
- ↑ Bureau of Public Roads Annual Report, 1949, p. 38.
- ↑ Bureau of Public Roads, Report On the Forest Highway Study Required By Section 3(b) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1958 (Dept. of Commerce, Washington, D.C, 1960) pp. 1, 2.
- ↑ Id., p. 2.
