of-way only, the date of completion was the date right of entry was acquired and applied only to the parcels involved.
Contracts awarded after June 30, 1957.—Contracts for work awarded after June 30, 1957, were excluded. In the case of long routes or route sections which were definitely scheduled for completion, but for which only segments were let to contract by June 30, 1957, only those segments actually let to contract by that date were included. Further, if the right-of-way only had been acquired by June 30, 1957, then only the right-of-way for the parcels involved was included.
Interstate funds involved.—Some recent improvements, or parts thereof, utilized interstate funds authorized by the 1956 act on a 90-percent Federal, 10-percent State matching basis. The Federal-aid interstate funds and the State matching funds involved in the financing of such improvements were not included.
Standards
Section 114 refers to highways which “measure up to the standards required by this title.” Since the standards refer to minimum dimensions and likewise provide for certain latitude in their application to local conditions, this term has been interpreted as meaning “reasonable compliance” with the standards for each facility included in the study. It seemed altogether proper to take this position, for it would obviously be economically unsound to consider construction of a new highway closely paralleling one already in existence and serving traffic well, yet deficient according to the interstate standards in relatively small degree, or to incur unjustifiably large expenditures to effect full compliance with the standards. The same standards were used in both this report and the report required by section 108 (d).
Stage improvements were eluded provided they form a part of, and are to be retained in, the ultimately developed interstate highway. Improvements that are clearly temporary and are not a part of the ultimate improvement were excluded.
Construction costs
All costs in this report were obtained directly, by the State highway departments or other agencies concerned, from contract and project records. Properly, these costs should be increased by about 10 percent as an allowance for engineering costs and administrative expenses of acquiring right-of-way. However, these latter items were not separately developed because of the difficulty in searching the records to obtain the precise amounts involved.
No adjustment was made for price level changes.
Costs reported excluded so-called nonhighway costs. These nonhighway costs, which are most commonly encountered on toll road work, include:
- Financing costs such as interest payments, bond discounts, financing fees, and other administrative costs.
- Costs attributable to toll operation such as toll gates, collection facilities, buildings, and highway facilities solely for toll purposes.
- Costs of service facilities such as those for maintenance operations and for food and fuel.
Included, therefore, are costs representing all public funds from State and local sources including proceeds from all types of bond issues together with all Federal funds regardless of specific class, i. e., inter-
