authorized the department to bond up to $850 million for highways.
Though construction programs continued at a brisk pace under Ziegler, toll road advocates organized in the mid-50's to build a pay-as-you-drive highway from Toledo to Detroit and north to the Saginaw Valley. A toll road commission was named and promoted the cause for two years. Their argument: Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Indiana had or were in the process of building east-west toll roads and Michigan should hook onto the system with a north-south route. Ziegler was cool to the idea, saying the taxpayers already had three east-west routes built or ready for construction, all toll free. The movement dissolved and Michigan, except for wooden plank roads of the 19th Century, has never had a toll road.
Ziegler, after 14 years as commissioner, lost a bid for reelection in 1957 and the job went to John C. Mackie, a young civil engineer from Flint. The year before, Congress had authorized construction of the biggest public works project in the history of the world—41,000 miles of interstate freeways at a projected cost of $27 billion. Michigan's share was 1,081 miles, eventually raised to 1,181 miles, and federal aid would pay 90 percent of the cost. Additionally, the federal goverment agreed to pay half the cost of construction and improvement of other highways on a designated federal aid system.
Mackie assumed office at a fortunate time. Ziegler and his top deputy, George Foster, and their staff had designed many of the freeways brought into the new interstate system and Michigan was ready to move quickly when federal dollars became available. Mackie hired Howard E. Hill as deputy and chief engineer and promoted him to managing director within two years. Hill had overseen the construction of military airfields and connecting channels of the Great Lakes in an 18-year career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He was the department's chief executive officer, responsible for day-to-day operations.
Mackie moved fast. He reorganized the department and called for final design of new routes to fit federal standards. He also capitalized on a 1957 act that permitted extensive bonding to match federal outlays and sold the first of $700 million in highway bonds issued during the 1950's and 1960's. Right-of-way was bought and contracts were let in a great surge of activity, the likes of which had not been seen before.
John C. Mackie, who ran the Department during Michigan's greatest freeway construction years, was the last elected commissioner.
The goal was a network of freeways to connect every city of more than 50,000 population with four-lane, divided, limited access highways in five years. The cost: $1.2 billion. The word, "freeway," fit. The highways would have no traffic lights, no hazards from intersecting roads or roadside obstacles; curves that would easily accommodate traffic moving at 70 miles an hour in rural areas. Later,
19
