A homemade tar kettle used to heat tar as a surfacing for dustless macadam.
The 1921 Federal Highway Act reinforced the construction and maintenance provisions of the 1916 Act by requiring the States to maintain the highway constructed under the program and specifying actions to be taken if this were not done. Section 14 of the Act required that where a State failed to maintain any road constructed as a Federal-aid highway project, the Secretary of Agriculture was to serve notice to that State. If the State did not repair the project within 90 days, the Secretary was to make the repairs by contract or Federal force account work and charge the cost against the Federal funds allotted to the State. No additional Federal-aid highway projects were to be approved for that State until the maintenance conditions were made satisfactory. When the Federal Government was reimbursed for the maintenance performed, the funds were paid into the Federal highway fund for reapportionment among all the States for the construction of roads. The Secretary could then approve further projects for that State.
Application of bitumen on a macadam road in 1912. The man in the center foreground is sprinkling aggregate onto the freshly poured surface. Today mechanized spreaders perform the same task.
Construction Partners
Unlike earlier roadbuilding procedures, such as statute labor or force account, by 1918, nearly all of the road construction work was done by contract. The State highway departments, after getting the approval from the BPK on their highway programs, project plans, specifications, and estimates of cost (PS&E), advertised for bids on the proposed work. After studying the bids received and selecting a contractor, a construction contract was awarded by the State highway department with the concurrence of the BPR. Copies of all contract documents, as well as plans and specifications, were forwarded to the BPR Washington office for review and analysis. This evaluation was to insure full compliance with Federal laws and regulations in order to avoid difficulties in paying the Federal share of the cost and to keep up with new materials and methods of construction de-
