Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks Reports Early Progress on Building the Interstate Highway System (1956)

Date: August 9, 1956

Created By: Sinclair Weeks

Original or Replica: Original

Era: The Interstate Highway System, The Presidency

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: DDE’s Records as President, Official File, Box 611, OF 141-B Highways and Thoroughfares (12); NAID #16857670

In this August 9, 1956 letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks reports on the first steps toward implementing the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and expanding the Interstate Highway System. Passed only weeks earlier, the legislation authorized a massive federal-state highway construction program. Weeks informs Eisenhower that $3.7 billion had already been apportioned to the states, including funds for fiscal years 1957 and 1958, with $2.7 billion specifically designated for the Interstate System.

Weeks also reports that national standards for improving the Interstate System had been adopted by state highway departments and approved by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Public Roads. States had already submitted proposed improvement programs totaling more than $800 million. In the short period since Eisenhower signed the legislation on June 29, states had received authorization to advertise bids for 122 miles of Interstate construction, estimated to cost more than $36 million, and contracts had already been awarded for 110 miles.

The letter highlights an important early milestone: on August 2, 1956, Missouri awarded the first Interstate construction contract using funds authorized by the new law. The project called for 2.6 miles of divided highway along U.S. 66 between Lebanon and Hazelgreen. Weeks notes that Missouri already had several additional Interstate projects under contract.

The document provides a valuable snapshot of the remarkable speed with which the federal government and states began implementing Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway program following passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.