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Highway Chronicle Chapter X:
Legislators
Lay the Foundation for State and Federal Highways
In 1912, the
Ohio Legislature gave the state highway department authority to establish and
oversee an Inter-County Highway System. The inclusion of more than 9,000 miles
of major roadway lead to further legislation in 1921 that enabled the state to
actively plan, design, build and maintain highways from newly created district
offices.
At the federal
level, the first road aid act was passed by Congress in 1916 and provided $75
million in matching funds to state highway agencies "to get American
drivers out of the mud."
Later, the
Federal Highway Act of 1921 established the Bureau of Public Roads and supplied
another $75 million in matching funds to help develop the Lincoln
Highway, which
became the first paved two-lane intercontinental automobile route between New
York and San Francisco. The Ohio portion followed U.S. Route 30 from East
Liverpool westward through Van Wert to the Indiana line.
During the
Great Depression, the Federal Works Progress
Administration, Public Works
Administration, and Civilian Conservation Corps put thousands of unemployed
Ohioans back to work building roads, bridges, drainage, and landscape
infrastructure. The average annual application of hot mix asphalt on the
state’s thoroughfares rose more than 1,000 percent from 19,400 tons in 1929 to
210,000 tons by 1940.
Amidst this
great period of construction, the Ohio Legislature officially redesignated the
position of “County Surveyor” to that of “County Engineer,” in 1935, to
provide for the building and maintenance of county roads and bridges.
Next
Chapter: Post-War
Road Construction Boom Shapes the Way We Travel
Highway
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