The Great Road

The biggest public works program since the Pharaohs piled up the Pyramids will help the economy for another generation. Before the signature of President Eisenhower was dry on the highway construction bill, Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks announced the allocation to the states of $1,125,000,000 in federal funds for the first year. The Associated General Contractors predicted that $100 million in construction contracts will be let by state highway departments within the next two months. Another $300 million in contracts is expected before the year is out. The bill, which raised taxes on gasoline a penny a gallon and increased taxes on tires and trucks, initially calls for federal-state highway spending of $33.5 billion over 13 years. Additional related construction will push the final total closer to $100 billion.

The contractors group anticipated that at its 1960 peak the 41,000-mile superhighway program will employ no fewer than 900,000, half of them building, half of them producing the materials and services needed. It also predicted that by 1960 road construction will reach $8 to $9 billion a year (1956 level: about $5.1 billion). Projecting estimates of the American Road Builders' Association, an $8 billion year will call for the following amounts of basic materials for roadbuilding:

P: Cement: 113,100,000 bbls. v. 58,700,000 bbls. for road work in 1955.

P: Stone, sand, gravel: 662,911,000 tons v. 403,100,000 tons last year,

P: Asphalt and tar: 9,000,000 tons v. 5,850,000 tons.

P: Lumber: 681 million board ft. v. 385 million board ft.

P: Timber piling: 22,173,000 linear ft. v. 12,575,000 linear ft.

P: Steel: 3,672,000 tons v. 1,938,000 tons.

P: Concrete pipe: 4,380,000 tons v. 2,640,000 tons.

P: Clay pipe and tile: 15,032,600 linear ft. v, 8,100,000 linear ft.

P: Oil products: 1,069,340,000 gals. v. 651,840,000 gals.

P: Explosives: 152,600,000 Ibs. v. 90,200,000 Ibs.

P: Signs: 662,000 v. 380,000.

Said Michael Paulson, business manager of the General Contractors Association: "This will mushroom into the greatest volume of construction our nation has ever experienced. The industry is on the brink of another decade of prosperity."

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