design of many bridges, the superstructures of which were later purchased in the United States. For the Philippines alone, of the approximately 500 bridges erected in the rehabilitation program, over 300 bridges were designed, procured in the United States, shipped, and erected.
By the end of 1969, major programs of FHWA’s overseas operations were nearly completed, and an overseas force of over 200 engineers and technicians was reduced to less than 70. From 1970 to 1974, programs consisted of relatively small teams of engineers assigned to Brazil, Argentina, Laos and Kuwait, with specialists being detailed to other countries for specific assignments when requested. Although current technical assistance requirements in many countries have changed to more sophisticated elements of highway and transportation techniques, such as the design and construction of limited access expressways in Kuwait, the need for basic highway assistance still exists in many developing nations.
In total, the Federal Highway Administration and its predecessors have sent engineers and technicians to over 50 countries throughout the world. From the deserts of Sudan and Jordan to the mountains of Nepal and Bolivia, from the jungles of the Amazon and Mindanao to the plateaus of Yemen and Ethiopia, and to the hills of Laos and Cambodia, FHWA engineers and technicians have helped develop local personnel to build and maintain roads, roads that provide much needed access for food, medicines and all of the many other items needed to improve living. In more than eight countries where these engineers have worked, revolutions and open civil warfare have taken place during the life of the projects, but no Bureau employee has been seriously injured. In many instances, the Bureau continued operations during the unrest.
However, a record of the international activities in road construction by the United States is not complete without a discussion of its work on the Inter-American Highway, the Alaska Highway, and its major technical assistance programs. Whether for the purpose of defense or international aid, it is in these operations that the capabilities of the United States, through its agent, Public Roads, was tested in imaginatively meeting totally different and complex situations, and in the professional competence, toughness, and diplomacy of its personnel. It is also in these operations with foreign countries that major positive impacts were effected as scores of engineers, technicians, and machine operators were trained, and as roads, which facilitated communications, defense, and economic development, were built or repaired. A more detailed examination of these operations presents a glimpse of the diversity and depth of the programs undertaken and the challenges that were met by the Federal Highway Administration and its predecessors as it worked in the international arena.
The Inter-American Highway
The dream of linking North and South America is an old one. King Charles V of Spain, in the early 1500’s, ordered a road built from Mexico to South America.[1] However, practical difficulties at that time made this plan impossible. In the 1880’s, Henry Clay publicly proposed a hemispheric route for the purpose of promoting good will and improving social and economic progress.[2] The idea gained impetus when a proposal was advanced in the U.S. Congress in 1884 for connecting the American continents by means of a Pan-American Railroad. Congress authorized the creation of a special commission to consult with the American Republics about the possibilities of railroad communication between their countries and the United States. As a result, at the First International American Conference held in December 1889 in Washington, D.C., the railroad project received active support. Subsequently the Pan-American Railroad Committee was created and over a period of years worked diligently but unsuccessfully to develop interest in the project.
In 1923, with automotive travel coming of age, the Fifth Conference of American States meeting in Santiago, Chile, recommended the holding of an automobile highway conference, looking toward the construction of a network of roads to facilitate freer passage within and between the various republics of the Americas. This was the start that was needed.
The first Pan-American Highway Congress was held in Buenos Aires in 1925, and it was decided to have the Highway Congress become a permanent activity of the Pan American Union. Three years after this meeting, the Sixth Conference of American States met at Havana, Cuba, This conference authorized the Pan-American Highway Congress to take the actions necessary to obtain financing and technical cooperation for preliminary studies of feasible routes for construction of an Inter-American Highway. The U.S. Congress took action on the idea of an Inter-American Highway on March 4, 1929 (45 Stat 1697) when a joint resolution was passed authorizing the appropriation of funds for the reconnaissance survey for a road to connect North and South America.
The concept of a Pan-American Highway System, meanwhile, was advanced at the Second Pan-American Highway Congress held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in early October 1929. At this Congress a resolution was adopted stating that each member country should prepare a complete study of its highway system plan in order to meet the needs of intercommunication of its political subdivisions and to provide the most convenient junction with the highway system of the neighboring countries. The governments were also requested to designate, as international highways, those main arteries of transportation which connected or would connect the capitals of the different countries with a view to incorporating them in the Pan-American Highway System.
Following the Congress in Rio de Janeiro, the Republic of Panama invited all of the countries of Central America, Mexico, and the United States to a conference in Panama City to consider ways and means of furthering the proposed plan for a road survey between the isthmus and the Rio Grande River. On October 7, 1929, this first Inter-American (Regional) Conference was held at the National Palace in Panama City. The representatives[N 1] enthusiastically endorsed the proposed survey and took action calling
- ↑ From Panama, Costa Rica, the Canal Zone, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the United States.
522
- ↑ Staff of The House Comm. On Public Works, 86th Cong., 2d Sess., Report of The Construction Progress On Inter-American Highway in Central America and Panama (Comm. Print 22) p. 146.
- ↑ Staff of The House Comm. On Public Works, 88th Cong., 1st. Sess., The Final Link, Report On The Darien Gap and Progress Toward Completion of The Inter-American Highway (Comm. Print 2) p. 3.
