the Supreme Court enjoined the Company from further disposition of lands. About 2.9 million acres were returned to the Federal Government in 1916. The other piece of land was granted in 1868 to the Southern Oregon Company for a wagon road between Coos Bay and Roseburg consisting of three alternate sections per mile in a strip 3 miles on either side of the wagon road location. When this land was returned in 1919 for similar reasons, the Federal Government reclaimed 93,000 acres.[1]
The Nestucca River Road in the Oregon Coast Range was improved in 1967 for use as a timber access road, but it has become an area also used for recreational purposes.
The O & C lands are located in the Coast Range and on the western slope of the Cascades in Oregon and contain very valuable and productive timber lands. At the time of the 1950 agreement, the O & C lands were essentially unroaded and isolated. The roads designed and constructed under BPR supervision made these lands accessible for timber production.
The major impact of the road construction was the improvement in the local economy stimulated by the logging operations. Timber available for sale went from 500 million board feet in 1937 to 1.2 billion board feet presently available, or about 3 percent of the Nation’s total production. In addition, receipts for fiscal year 1976 were $118 million, of which 50 percent is returned to the 18 counties for such uses as roads, schools, public works, and other needs of the counties. The Treasury Department receives 25 percent of the remainder and BLM uses the other 25 percent to manage the lands.[2]
Funds transferred to BPR for design and construction have ranged from an initial $550,000 for fiscal year 1951 to $11.6 million for fiscal year 1975. Since 1954 BPR has also been responsible for the performance of the maintenance work on these roads. To date, BPR has constructed 4,900 miles of one- and two-lane roads on the O & C lands. Although initially developed as timber access roads, most of the roads are open to the public, and recreational use of these roads has increased substantially in recent years.
Demonstration Projects Program
In 1969 a Demonstration Projects Program was established in Region 15 with the objective of promoting, by demonstration, the application of new technology as it applied to highway location, design, construction, maintenance, and operation. This program was to reestablish one of the most successful programs initiated by the original Office of Road Inquiry in 1897 and carried on as a major program effort for many years thereafter—the construction of “object lesson roads” and the conduct of demonstration programs. This program was established in Region 15 because this office had experienced most every type of highway construction under a wide range of field conditions and because the Region 15 project personnel included competent practicing highway engineers and technicians who could communicate readily with their counterparts in the FHWA headquarters R and D and field offices and State transportation agencies.
Since the establishment of the Demonstration Projects Program, many successful demonstration projects have been carried out. Particularly noteworthy was the construction on the grounds of Dulles Airport in 1972 of one of the first prestressed reinforced concrete pavements and the construction of a large parking lot in conjunction with the Transpo ’72 exhibition, using a calcium sulphate sludge and fly ash as a base stabilization product.
The Chaco Wash Bridge on the Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico was built by agreement for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Note the rock and wire channel protection in the right foreground.
