(2) Subprofessional employees

It is in the subprofessional group that the major expansion of engineering personnel will be necessary. At the present time, 3 or 4 subprofessional employees are being used for each professional employee. The need for subprofessional personnel will be increased by any movement of qualified professional employees now occupying subprofessional positions into the professional classification. It is estimated that the current $4 billion highway construction program is using approximately 90,000 subprofessional employees. The program under consideration would, of course, require a large number of additional subprofessional employees and every effort should be made to minimize the requirements. Full use of modern survey methods and standardization of plans are prerequisite to economy in personnel. For example

(a) Location and cross-section surveys which are, in some cases, still being performed by ground crews can and should be performed more extensively by aerial photogrammetry. This would effect a considerable reduction in subprofessional requirements.

(b) Much of the highway construction will be of the limited-access type through rural areas. On such work, the overhead structures for intersecting roads are to a large extent standard and standard plans can be used for many structures. Standard plans and standard prefabricated bridges can also be utilized on the many small stream crossings.

(c) Contracts on much of the program will probably be considerably larger than the average contract is today. This will reduce the engineering detail and the subprofessional work required per dollar on this type of construction. The number of small contracts, which comprise a large part of today's work and provide a field in which the small contractor can obtain a start in highway work, will not of course be reduced. Rather they will increase but probably not in proportion to total increase in construction volume.

As in the case of professional employees, it should be possible to obtain the subprofessional employees necessary for at least a billion dollars of highway construction from other fields in which the construction rate is declining. The present corps of subprofessional employees would, however, have to be greatly increased to meet requirements of the expanded program. This would call for the recruitment and training of capable applicants. To be successful it will be necessary to

(a) equalize wage scales with competing industry;

(b) provide both theoretical and practical on-the-job training in drafting and surveying;

(c) establish in some manner a group of subprofessional positions equal in remunerative value to the lower professional positions but separate from the lower professional positions into which the subprofessional can expect to be promoted.

Summarizing the situation, there is a definite shortage of subprofessional personnel to carry out the planning and design load imposed by the proposed program. Through the extensive use of aerial photogrammetry and standard plans and specifications, by transfers from other construction fields and by the training of new personnel, the requirements can be met. The program of recruitment and on-the-job training should be planned now and carried into execution immediately upon the firming up of the future program.

SYSTEM LOCATION

A prerequisite to the prompt execution of a highway construction program is the detail location of an integrated highway system on which to proceed with orderly improvements. Fortunately, most of the highways except those on the Interstate System have long been established and for that reason no bottlenecks due to system location are anticipated in the engineering advancement of projects to the construction stage. However, with respect to the Interstate System the situation is different.

This system, as now established, consists of flexible, continuous routes with designated major cities as control areas. Existing roads between these cities have been used as convenient indications of location and mileage, but final location of the routes is yet to be established. Because of the characteristics of these highways-broad freeways providing for swift uninterrupted flow of traffic with no entering or cross streets except at prescribed points of interchanges, and with full control of access obtained either by legislative authority or by the construc

tion of frontage roads serving adjacent private property-many of the State highway departments and smaller cities have not yet decided whether to allow these transcontinental expressways to pass through the city or to build them as belt routes around the city with connecting radial routes. Because of the impact on the business districts that will result from these wide expressways, their location requires time-consuming, precedent-making decisions. In the larger metropolitan control areas, similar decisions must be made regarding location of belt routes, radials leading to the rural portions of the Interstate System and complicated traffic interchanges.

The correlation of existing urban systems with the interstate routes and with the major urban expressway systems is also required in order that efficient collection of traffic to and from the expressway may be effected. Decisions on these problems must be based on time-consuming traffic engineering studies of traffic flow. Because of the complicated nature of the problems, cities should be urged to develop as expeditiously as possible a master highway improvement program with priority schedules.

While the problem is of greatest importance in regard to the urban portions of the Interstate System, it is also of consequence in regard to the rural Interstate System and some portions of the Federal-aid urban system.

Because of the geometric standards required, considerable time and effort are needed to locate the shortest and most economical route. There should therefore, be an intense and concerted effort by all parties concerned-the States, the cities, the counties, and the other highway agencies-to solve this problem.

ACCESS LIMITATION

Controlled access is not generally a requirement on the established free highway systems of the Nation. In contract, control of access will be a requirement in accordance with standards recently adopted for the Interstate System.

The principal operational or functional difference between a highway with and one without control of access is in the degree of interference with through traffic by vehicles entering, leaving, and crossing the highway, and by pedestrians. Where there is no control of access and resulting roadside businesses develop along the highways, as in suburban areas, interference from the roadside can become a factor of major importance, reducing the capacity of the highway and increasing the accident hazard. As traffic increases, roadside businesses become more profitable and grow in number. Congestion develops and attempts to correct the highway deficiency by widening it are prevented by the high value of the roadsides. Highway obsolescence creeps in and authorities ultimately are forced to relocate the highway on new right-of-way. This is a costly and unnecessary drain on a State's resources.

Where there is control of access, entrances and exits are located at points best suited to fit traffic needs and designed to enable vehicles to enter and leave safely without interfering with through traffic. Vehicles are prevented from entering or leaving elsewhere so that, regardless of the type and intensity of development of the areas, the capacity of the highway is maintained at a high level and the accident hazard is kept low.

Where control of access is accomplished by frontage roads, the highway consists of a roadway or roadways for through traffic and frontage roads for local traffic which provide access to adjacent land. Frontage roads generally are parallel to the roadways for through traffic but separated from them.

The improvement of the Interstate System consititutes a major part of the increase in the proposed 10-year road program, and the acquiring of access control may be a major bottleneck to the prompt execution of the program. Many States do not have the legislative authority to take property for limited access control.

In more densely populated areas, especially when reconstruction on existing location is contemplated, the problem of acquiring access control is more difficult because it involves the taking of property that will effectively deny access to established homes and businesses along the highway. It involves a controversial subject on which considerable time is consumed in assembling right-ofway parcels. There is also considerable time involved in the clearance of rightsof-way and demolition or moving of buildings.

At the present time, 13 States have no access control law at all and only 6 have a law that provides all 11 of the features considered necessary to provide the effective control needed on a modern highway system. The 11 essential fea

tures as outlined by the laws committee, highway research board for presentation at the Seattle meeting, legal affairs committee of AASHO, 1954 are:

1. A declaration of legislative policy.

2. Definition of terms.

3. Authority extending to counties and cities as well as to State.

4. Authority for the State highway department to design access control facilities.

5. Authority to acquire right-of-access, right-of-air, right-of-light, and rightof-view.

6. Authority extending to existing highways as well as new locations.

7. Authority to construct frontage roads.

8. Authority to prohibit physical encroachment.

9. Authority for intergovernmental cooperation between State and local subdivisions regarding planning, financing, land acquisition, construction, or maintenance.

10. Authority of local subdivisions to consent to the barricading of streets. 11. Enforcement of penalty provisions.

It is important that the State authorities take prompt action to remedy this deficiency. It is of course necessary, in order for them to take action, that the public be made aware of the value of access control laws and of the consequences of building a system of major highways without the protection of access control. There is ample evidence of such need on the roads leading into our major cities that were built without access control.

In view of the fact that the Federal Government may pay a substantial part of the cost of controlled access features, some State highway departments, through resolutions of their regional associations, have suggested that new Federal-aid highway legislation for the National System of Interstate Highways include eminent domain authority. This authority would be exercised in States not having proper legal authority to take property that would limit highway access. The Federal Government would then lease the property to the State for a nominal sum. The effect of such a provision would be to expedite projects on the Interstate System from the planning and engineering to the construction stage in States not having adequate State laws for the acquisition and control of access.

RIGHT-OF-WAY WIDTH AND CONTROL

The proposed program contemplates the construction of highways that will be adequate for traffic 10 to 20 years hence. On major highway systems where access control is not contemplated to preserve traffic capacity, allowance should be made for highway obsolescence due to decreasing capacity resulting from roadside interference. Such allowances can be made by acquiring sufficient right-of-way to provide for later widening or the addition of frontage roads to serve adjacent property, whereby the high capacity of the through lanes may be maintained. Wide rights-of-way decrease interference and discourage development of the abutting property.

Some State laws do not provide authority for the acquisition of abutting property or easements for future widening of the highway. It is estimated that for the $101 billion reported highway deficiencies, the cost of right-of-way alone would be in the vicinity of $12 billion. It would be worthwhile to reexamine existing laws to determine the action necessary to expedite right-of-way acquisition. Any improvement in this respect would cut down the elapsed time between the allocation of funds and the actual time the contractor starts work on the job site. Advance planning for and early acquisition of rights-of-way, particularly in urban and suburban areas, are of prime importance.

STRUCTURES INCLUDING GRADE SEPARATIONS

Included in the total work to be done is the construction of about 300,000 bridges. The amount of bridge construction is particularly high on the Interstate System where grade separation will be constructed at crossroads.

Standardization of plans and the use of prefabricated bridges, both steel and corcrete, would be very helpful in reducing the need for professional engineers on bridge work. Such a policy is particularly applicable to bridges on local roads. On larger steel structures, original plans are prepared by State highway departments or consulting engineers. A set of shop drawings are prepared and phased to the customs of the steel fabricator. It may be possible to cut down the lead time in the preparation of these two sets of plans and thus expedite

construction of our highways by closer coordination between industry and engineering to reduce plan requirements. Understanding of steel mill practices and rolling schedules would also be helpful. A selection of standard size wide flange beams and standard steel specifications that are phased closer to normal rolling schedules would cut down the lead time required before construction can get started on the job site.

In consideration of the competency of the bridge design personnel in the State highway departments and in private practice, there is ample capacity insofar as professional engineers are concerned to satisfactorily handle the expanded bridge program. However, subprofessional help must be recruited and trained. In addition, the advance planning on such an extensive program should be undertaken without delay.

PAVEMENT LOADING DESIGN AND VEHICLE CHARACTERISTICS

With the prospect of constructing highways that will be adequate to carry traffic 10 and 20 years hence, there is need to determine, with some degree of certainty, the character of the traffic these roads will carry in order to avoid obsolescence. In the 1920's it was not known that traffic would expand to its present dimensions. It was not anticipated that car manufacturers would produce the modern high-speed cars with lower bodies, thus lowering the driver's height of eye and accelerating the obsolescence of highways due to changed sight distance requirements. This experience merits caution in the development of the new highway program.

The 1945 American Association of State Highway Officials' standards for the interstate system are now 9 years old. While the AASHO recently authorized the development of up-to-date standards, their development and the prompt execution of a highway construction program is impeded by the lack of a definite determination of the weights and sizes of trucks for which the principal highways of the Nation should be designed. The thickness of the subbase, base and surface, the width and grade, and other characteristics of the highways vary, depending on the weight of vehicles to be allowed on the road.

America's truck fleet has doubled in size since 1940. Ten million trucks now travel annually 100 billion miles over our Nation's highways. In defense activities of the future, the flexibility of truck transportation will encourage more manufacturers of war materiel to use longer distance production lines than were utilized during World War II. The success of our production efforts at that time was attributed to assembly lines, which often crossed entire States, as truck operations made it possible for many small subcontracting plants to participate directly by the movement of subassemblies over the highways to the main plants.

Increased dependence of the Armed Forces on highway transportation is also indicated by the fact that highway tonnage shipped by commercial carriers for the Armed Forces during a 4-year period beginning with the Korean emergency was practically the same as during the 4 peak years of World War II.

The land transportation lesson learned by the military forces in World War II was that railroad centers and marshaling yards when bombed could be restored only slowly and with difficulty whereas highway transportation could recuperate quickly because of the relative ease of repairing damaged roadways and structures, the availability of alternate routes, and the relatively small loss of vehicles which are ordinarily well dispersed. The flexibility of highway transportation makes it the more dependable form of transportation for direct support of military operations in combat areas. Should our industrial centers and railroads become targets for attack, primary dependence

likewise will have to be placed on highway transportation for some time following the attack. We should therefore gear our highway design needs on the Interstate System to the defense requirements of the future.

Highways should be built for commodity movements across the Nation. Under existing State laws this involves considerable variation in load limitations as is illustrated, in the following exhibit on vehicle weight limits.

Vehicle weight limits, as compiled by National Highway Users Conference as of Aug. 1, 1954

It is necessary, therefore, that the representatives of the various interested segments of the Nation's economy consult and agree on the size, weight, and other characteristics of tomorrow's vehicle. This would provide engineers with the criteria needed to design highways for future traffic loads both under peace and war conditions.