TxDOT
engineers in the 1960s look over a model and blueprint of the I-35 and
U.S. Hwy. 290 interchange in Austin. (Photo courtesy of the TxDOT Library)
(College Station)—When the National Defense Highway Act was passed in 1956, no state had a greater stake in its success or could anticipate greater benefits from the new interstate highway system than Texas. As the largest state in the lower 48, anything that improved travel times across vast distances was welcomed, and the fact that these new roads were also going to be safer and smoother only increased their value and importance.
With more than 2,905 miles of the system’s total 40,000 miles initially scheduled to be built in Texas, interstate highways would significantly influence the population growth and the dramatic shifts in the state’s economy that began in the mid-1950s. By that time, Texas had the advantage of an already excellent system of state highways and a state Highway Department composed of visionary, well-trained engineers ready to take on the challenge of merging the new interstate highways with the existing road system. Texas’ interstate highways did more than facilitate travel across the state’s many miles. They also reshaped the appearance and improved the efficiency of transportation systems within Texas cities, affecting how and where they grew as well as their economic future.
The success of the interstate system in Texas is a tribute to thousands of dedicated engineers, planners and builders who worked together to create a highway system that would serve the people of Texas well. Above all, it’s a story of how this massive federal public works project—the largest ever seen in the United States—affected a state, its people and its economy.
Americans, and especially Texans, built the interstate at a phenomenally rapid pace through the 1950s and ‘60s. As the sophisticated network of highways developed, so did roadside devices such as signs, guardrails, utility poles, median barriers and culverts with concrete headwalls. These devices had the potential to become hazardous to vehicles leaving the roadway due to driver error or wet roads.
But both Texas and the nation rose to the occasion and responded to the need for a more “forgiving” roadside. The passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 and the Highway Safety Act of 1966 provided federal funds on a 50-50 matching basis for expansion and improvements of state and local highway safety programs. It is in this area that Texas has had the most notable contributions to transportation.
Through its partnership with the Texas Highway Department and participation in the Cooperative Research Program, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers utilized the funding by designing, testing and implementing several life-saving safety structures such as breakaway signposts and light poles, innovative crash cushions, concrete barriers and guardrails. Many of these innovations are implemented today across the nation’s highways.
TTI
in the 1960s helped pioneer the “breakaway” concept and specifications
for improved safety of numerous roadside structures that are now found across
the nation. (Photo courtesy of TTI)
The interstate system was designed to be a “point-to-point” system, connecting all cities in the nation with a population of over 50,000. Most of Texas’ larger cities—Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso—met this criteria; others would have the good fortune to be on a chosen interstate route.
Because Texas had nearly 2,500 miles of highways that could be upgraded to the new federal standards relatively easily, most interstates in Texas were developed along existing U.S. and state highways—I-45 replacing US 75 between Dallas and Houston, I-35 replacing US 81, and I-40 superseding the famed US 66 across the top part of Texas, on its way west to Amarillo, New Mexico and the West Coast. Out of a system that includes over 47,000 miles of roadway, Texas comes in with 3,233—more miles than any other state.
The interstate system has contributed some $2.8 trillion dollars to the Texas economy over its lifetime, more than $104 billion in 2005 alone. Without the interstate system, Texas would have 1.6 million fewer non-farm jobs and 4.2 million fewer people.
The ribbons of concrete and asphalt that make up the Texas interstate
system seem to stretch out endlessly across the hills, plains and deserts
of Texas, linking small towns with big cities, carrying the goods we manufacture
and those we buy, and making it possible, as Frank Turner, a 1929 graduate
of Texas A&M University and one of the interstate’s pioneers,
said, to go “from anywhere to everywhere.” 