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  3. Building the American Highway System: Engineers as Policy Makers

Building the American Highway System: Engineers as Policy Makers

Bruce E. Seely
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  • Overview

  • Contents

The Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) has played a central role in the development of public roads and the national highway system in the United States. From an initial concern for farm-to-market roads, to a focus on a federal-aid system of primary and secondary highways, to its final concern for a network of high-speed intercity expressways, federal highway engineers have acted as the arbiters of American highway development. Seely investigates the influence that the BPR established from 1890 through 1956 a probing account of an instance where science prevailed over democracy, essentially because Americans were confident that the engineers could resolve even the most complex problems.
  • Cover
  • Half Title
  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Series Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: Experts in a Democratic Society
  • Part I Building the Constituency and Setting the Patterns, 1890–1921
    • Chapter One The Early Good Roads Movement, 1890–1905
      • Creating Public Support: Roy Stone and the LAW
      • Promotion and Politics: Martin Dodge and the OPRI, 1899–1905
    • Chapter Two The Progressives, Expertise, and Highways, 1905–16
      • Expertise and Highways: Technical Information
      • Expertise and Highways: Management and Administration 30
      • The Social Justification of Good Roads
      • Federal Aid for Highways, 1910–16
    • Chapter Three The Creation of a National Highway System, 1916–21
      • False Start for Federal Aid
      • Federal Aid versus a National Highway Commission
      • The Federal Highway Act of 1921
      • MacDonald’s Policy and Consensus
  • Part II The Golden Age of Highway Building, 1921–36
    • Chapter Four Building the Federal-Aid Highway System, 1921–36
      • Cooperation and Federal Aid
      • Federal Aid in Michigan
      • The BPR and State Highway Systems: The Role of Expertise
      • Roads and Relief, 1929–36
      • Highway Building, 1921–36
    • Chapter Five Highway Research and the Cooperative Ethos, 1918–40
      • The BPR and Highway Research
      • The BPR and Cooperative Research: The Highway Research Board
      • The Limits to Cooperation
    • Chapter Six The Paradox of Cooperation and Expertise: Consensus Highway Standards, 1921–39
      • The Crusade for Standards in Industry
      • State Highway Specifications: The BPR and the AASHO 121
      • Consensus Standards for Highway Materials: The BPR and the ASTM
      • The Contradiction of the Associative Philosophy
  • Part III From Rural to Urban Road Building, 1936–56
    • Chapter Seven The Failure of Consensus, 1936–38
      • Road Building in the New Deal
      • Alternatives to the Federal-Aid System: Rural Roads and Superhighways
      • Urban Highways in the 1920s and 1930s
      • Heading Off the Competition: BPR Responses, 1935–38
    • Chapter Eight Planning and Master Plans, 1938–44
      • Highway Planning Surveys and a Master Plan: Toll Roads and Free Roads
      • The National Interregional Highway Committee and Postwar Planning
      • Building a New Consensus, 1943–44
      • The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944
    • Chapter Nine Shaping a New Consensus: From Postwar Struggles to Interstate Highways, 1945–56
      • Postwar Road Building, 1945–48
      • Rural versus Urban Highways, 1948–50
      • More Money for Roads, 1950–53
      • Toll Roads and Interstate Highways, 1950–53
      • The Emergence of a New Consensus, 1953–54
      • The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, 1954–56
      • Politics or Expertise?
  • Conclusion Highway Engineers as Policy Makers
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • Note on Sources
  • Index
Citable Link
Published: 1987
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN(s)
  • 9780877224723 (hardcover)
  • 9781628201376 (ebook)
Subject
  • Science & Technology
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