Federal Aid Highway Act Of 1938: A Feasibility Study

By the mid-1920s, the main roads near and between large cities were getting seriously congested because of the increase in the number of automobiles. The large volume of traffic created a demand for more lanes and more interstate highways; consequently, the collection of tolls to finance federal highways between the principal cities was considered by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) but was rejected. Early in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed that a study be conducted that would assess the feasibility of constructing six routes as toll roads, three of which would be east-west routes from coast to coast and three would be routes that traversed the country from north to south (Deakin, 1989; FHWA, 1976; Williamson, 2012). Therefore, in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938, a feasibility

For example, to reduce the cost of collecting tolls, the access points had to be spaced far apart and this did not allow the use of the road for local traffic. If trucks were prohibited on the toll roads, the state would have to provide public free roads for trucks. Yet, the federal authorities were not able to influence the toll authorities with their policies because the toll road authorities had not received any federal funds. On the other hand, the successful turnpikes which were profitable invested their revenues to support the weaker sections. The 100-mile extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike east to the Delaware River, a new toll expressway from Greenwich to Killingly in Connecticut, and a northern extension of the Maine Turnpike to Augusta are evidence of the success of the profitable turnpikes (FHWA,