50th Anniversary of the Highway System
50th Anniversary of the Highway System
America is truly a nation on wheels, benefiting from a freedom of
mobility unequaled anywhere in the world. Much of this ease of travel
is attributable to the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate
Highways, which celebrates its 50th anniversary on June 29, 2006.
In recognition of the enormous gain made to society through our nation’s
investment in transportation, AASHTO is planning to lead a series of
nationwide events to help re-establish the importance of transportation as a
priority issue for our nation’s citizens.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Event organizers are looking for your great ideas and input to help design
the events.
AASHTO is seeking both state-based and national activities that are fun
and educational, and is inviting its members to consider what sort of
program would make sense in their own states and regions. The goal is to
plan sweeping national activities that can be linked with each other.
Part of the celebration will include collaborative activities with such
groups as the Eisenhower Institute, which has planned at least two major
policy-formation seminars around the anniversary in October, 2005 and
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50th Anniversary of the Highway System
June, 2006.
To help lead the effort, AASHTO has established a special Interstate
Anniversary Steering Committee which is being chaired by Oklahoma
DOT Director Gary Ridley. Half the members on the committee are CEOs
and half are public-affairs representatives from around the nation.
Chairman Ridley selected them by region, and met with them during the
AASHTO Washington Briefing in early March.
Click to view enlargement of this 1957 AASHTO Highways Map
Committee CEO Members are: Tom Norton, of Colorado for WASHTO;
Pete Rahn of Missouri for Mississippi Valley ; Dan Tangherlini of the
District of Columbia for NASTO and Harold Linnenkohl of Georgia (VP
of AASHTO) for SASHTO. Public-Affairs representatives on the panel
are Doug Nintzel of Arizona for WASHTO; Dena Gray-Fisher of Iowa for
Mississippi Valley ; Dana Alexander Nolfe of Rhode Island for NASTO;
and Lynda South of Virginia for SASHTO. Terri Angier of Oklahoma is
also staffing this for Chairman Ridley.
If you have great ideas for either a national event or one for your own area,
please share them with the planning committee. You might want to begin
hunting for photos, history, and people still living who can tell the
transportation story in your state.
The next major meeting of the steering committee will be at the AASHTO
Spring Meeting in New Jersey in May. There also will be an in-depth
exploration of the project at the National Transportation Public Affairs
Workshop (NTPAW), which is the annual meeting of AASHTO’s
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50th Anniversary of the Highway System
Administrative Subcommittee on Public Affairs, in Delaware early in
September.
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