greatly reducing the cost of road construction, and it is a well-known fact that the French roads are the best in the world. . . .”[1]
The Federal Highway Administration and its predecessors have sent engineers and technicians throughout the world to help build and maintain roads.
The OPRI first participated in an international event in 1900 when the Office built an object lesson road for observation of engineers and officials attending the First International Good Roads Convention at Port Huron, Michigan. “A special feature of the work was that the traction engine was used instead of horses to draw the road machine and dumping wagons, which plan proved very satisfactory. Thus, the traction engine served the treble purpose of furnishing power for the crusher, drawing the road grader, etc., and rolling the road.”[2]
In 1908 Maurice O. Eldridge, Chief of Records, Office of Public Road Inquiries, submitted a paper on “Cost of Road Building in the United States” for the First International Road Congress in Paris, France. In the same year, a new investigation by OPRI of road construction, maintenance and administration in foreign countries was also in progress.[3]
By 1910 the library of the Office of Public Roads (OPR) was receiving periodicals and reports from the major European countries. In 1911 the library reported “. . . Foreign countries which are issuing reports concerning highway activities have also placed this office on their mailing list in exchange for similar courtesies from us [Public Roads].”[4][N 1]
In 1913 the OPR made its first exhibition outside the United States. Financed by a special appropriation from Congress, an exhibit was set up at the International Dry Farming Congress in Lethbridge, Canada. It was also in this year that Congress requested the Department of State to obtain the latest information available concerning 17 items of highway development from some 19 countries of Europe and Asia. When this material was obtained, it was studied by OPR officials and given to Congress for their use in considering legislation.
- ↑ The 1912 Annual Report noted, “The office has also received large collections of city engineer’s reports from Australia, Austria, Belgium, British Guiana, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Romania, Russia, Salvador, Scotland, Straits Settlements, Sweden, Switzerland and the Union of South Africa.”
During the next 8 years, which included World War I, the Office had little foreign exchange of information on peacetime road developments, but U.S. research and development in this area accelerated
