PART I. THE FEASIBILITY OF A SYSTEM OF TRANSCONTINENTAL TOLL ROADS
Section 13 of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1938, approved June 8, 1938, provides that:
The Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads is hereby directed to investigate and make a report of his findings and recommend to the Congress not later than February 1, 1939, with respect to the feasibility of building, and cost of, superhighways not exceeding three in number, running in a general direction from the eastern to the western portion of the United States, and not exceeding three in number, running in a general direction from the northern to the southern portion of the United States, including the feasibility of a toll system on such roads.
In accordance with this direction an investigation has been made, reconnaissance locations of six highways answering the general description contained in the act have been projected, and the following report is submitted with recommendations concerning the feasibility of building, and cost of, the six superhighways selected, and the feasibility of a toll system on them.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The building of the six superhighways on the selected locations, to the high standards consistent with the indicated character of the proposed facilities, is entirely feasible from a physical standpoint. The approximate total length of the six superhighways, as projected, is 14,336 miles; and the estimated cost of constructing them to desirable standards is $2,899,800,000, which is at the average rate of $202,270 per mile.
The estimated cost per mile varies from a maximum of $1,158,400 for the section from Jersey City, N. J., to New Haven, Conn., to a minimum of $63,450 for the section from Rupert, Idaho, to Brigham, Utah. The variation results principally from differences in the estimated cost of right-of-way, the quantity of grading required, the number of access points, the number and character of bridges required to carry the highway over streams and over or under intersecting highways and railways, and the number of pavement lanes required for the accommodation of the estimated traffic.
A most conservative average estimated annual expenditure for theperiod 1945-60, required ‘for financing the construction, maintaining the property, and operating the facility, for the six superhighways in their entirety is $184,054,000 per year, which is at the average rate of $12,840 per mile per year, varying from a maximum of $66,560 per mile per year for the section from Jersey City, N. J., to New Haven, Conn., to a minimum of $5,700 per mile per year for the section from Rupert, Idaho, to Brigham, Utah. These estimates of the required annual expenditure are based on reasonable assumptions with respect to the probable service life of the various elements of the construction, probable maintenance and operating costs, and financing costs based upon a 30-year loan with annual interest at 2.6 percent and an additional 2.24 percent for retirement.
