Congress realized that it would take some time for the States to enact suitable legislation assenting to the Federal Act, to raise matching funds and train personnel for an expanded road program. The Congress, in order to provide time, allowed States with unexpended funds at the close of the fiscal year one additional fiscal year to obligate funds and, for those States that did not have a State highway department, the appropriation would be available until the close of the third fiscal year following the fiscal year for which it was apportioned. The legislators may also have remembered how long it took the Secretary of Agriculture and the Postmaster General to implement the much smaller post road program of 1912. At any rate, they appropriated only $5 million for fiscal year 1917, the first year of the new program, but at the same time, they provided for increasing the amount by $5 million annually up to a maximum of $25 million in 1921.[N 1] Thus, although the amount initially available was not large, Congress, by appropriating for 5 years in advance, made it possible for the States to plan ahead and build up an orderly program. This wise policy has continued down to the present.
Launching the Federal-Aid Program
The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 placed an immense additional responsibility on Logan Waller Page and the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering,[N 2] to whom Secretary of Agriculture Houston delegated the administration of the Act. First, they had to apportion the appropriated funds among the 48 States, and this required that the Postmaster General certify the mileage of rural delivery and star routes in each State. The apportionment was published July 21, 1916, just 10 days after President Wilson signed the Act.
Page and the Department solicitor then drafted tentative regulations for carrying out the provisions of the Act, and invited the heads of all the State highway departments to a conference in Washington to discuss them. The draft regulations did not satisfy everyone, particularly the provisions denying Federal participation in the cost of right-of-way and the cost of making preliminary surveys and plans. However, most of the suggestions made by the State officials were incorporated in the final draft, and the regulations were issued September 1, 1916.
The harmonious cooperation between the Federal and State officials in drafting these regulations was a good omen for the eventual success of the Federal-aid program. Their work was so well done that the regulations were not greatly changed for years afterward, even though the Act itself was very considerably amended.
The Act gave the State highway departments the authority to initiate projects subject to approval of the plans, specifications and estimates by the Secretary. To provide prompt inspection and approval of projects, Page decentralized the OPKEE into ten regional districts, each in charge of an experienced highway engineer. At the same time, he had men at work, in cooperation with the States, preparing standard forms for plans and specifications, and in February 1917 he convened a conference of State testing engineers in Washington to recommend to the States standard specifications and methods of testing road materials.
The OPRRE’s administrative diligence was matched by that of those States which already had adequate highway departments. By July 1917, Page’s district engineers had received applications from 26 States for Federal aid in the construction of 949 miles of road estimated to cost $5.43 million, the Federal share of which amounted to about $2.43 million, or less than half of the funds appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 1917. Of these projects, 188 miles, with a Federal share of $846,152, had been approved.[2]
Standards for Federally Aided Roads
Representative Shackleford’s original bill, which much amended eventually became the Federal Aid Road Act, provided that Federal aid might be used for earth and sand-clay roads, as well as for higher types, “. . . one of the purposes of this Act being to encourage and promote the improvement of a general system of roads leading from cities, towns and railway stations into the adjacent farming communities.”[3] This specific language was eliminated while the bill was under consideration in Congress. Instead, the Secretary of Agriculture was given the power to review and approve State proposals, including road types and standards, subject to the limitation that approved projects should be “substantial in character.”
The poorer States of the South and West regarded this limitation with considerable apprehension, fearing that the Secretary might require macadam, concrete or other high types of surfacing for Federal approval. This apprehension may have been reinforced by the fact that the first Federal-aid project approved was a 20-foot concrete road in California. To allay this widespread fear, Secretary Houston, in February 1917, issued a specific statement to the public:
‘This department, which is charged with the administration of the Federal Aid Road Act, has placed absolutely no restrictions, either direct or implied, upon the kinds of highways to be constructed. States may submit for approval any kind of road, even an earth road, and approval will be given if the construction be substantial in character, suitable for traffic needs, and meets the terms of the Federal act. To give State legislators and highway officials the impression that this department favors only costly types of road or discriminates in favor of any particular material, results not only in spreading misinformation, but in placing barriers in the way of States which wish to avail themselves of Federal aid in road construction.’[4]
This announcement apparently had the desired effect. As of January 1918, 80 percent of the 2,849 miles submitted for Federal-aid approval were for gravel, sand-clay or graded earth roads.
- ↑ In addition to providing $75 million for Federal aid to post roads, Congress appropriated $10 million for roads and trails in national forests to be spent at the rate of $1 million per year beginning in 1917 under the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture.
- ↑ On July 1, 1915, the Department’s work on farm drainage, irrigation and farm architecture was merged with the work on roads under a new Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering (OPRRE) with Logan Waller Page as Director. The working force under Page after the merger was 450 persons, of whom 288 were from the rolls of the old OPR and 162 from other agencies.[1]
