Quote:
Originally Posted by mr1138
the Interstate Highway System was actually intended for purposes of national defense first, and commerce second. The idea is that you can deploy the U.S. Military to any location within the lower 48 states in a day or less by first landing airplanes on the freeway itself (which is designed to act as a runway whenever feasible), and then rolling military vehicles down the road (either freeway or 2-lane highway) from there. This means that there is a certain minimum distance that any location in the US needs to be from a freeway.
|
Nonsense. All of it.
Throughout the years of congressional debate, military strategists repeatedly testified that they didn't need any particular routes or geometric specifications, always saying that highways built to promote commerce would also serve their needs. To Pres. Eisenhower, the public-works and job-creation aspects of the system were about as important as defense aspects. I am not aware of any serious civil defense or military rationale that was part of Congressional debate. The words "and Defense" were added to the name of the "National System of Interstate Highways" in conference committee, almost as an afterthought, and played no role in congressional voting. See
Congressional Record, 102, Part 8, pp. 10991-10997. The definitive source on this history is Rose, Mark H.
Interstate: Express Highway Politics, 1939-1989. University of Tennessee Press, rev. ed. 1990.
The landing strips nonsense has been debunked in a number of places, including Snopes and Roland F. Weingroff,
"1 Mile in 5: Debunking the Myth," Public Roads (May/June 2000), p.45.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr1138
Did KC REALLY need it's own direct link to Wichita? Or for that matter, do we really need an extra freeway from Tulsa to St. Louis (I-44)?
|
The Kansas Turnpike was considered so vital that it was built from anticipated toll revenues years before the Interstate system was even created. As for I-44, have you ever heard of Route 66? The Southern Route via Oklahoma and New Mexico (avoiding the snowy Rockies) has been vital to cross-country traffic for nearly a century. Truck traffic was so heavy that, again, the two Oklahoma turnpike portions were built years before any other interstates in the region.
As for the OP, new superhighways are being built every year, a few miles at a time, often as a misguided attempt at rural economic development. Once substantial portions are complete, the state DOTs apply to AASHTO for Interstate designations. I-49 and I-69 are good examples, but lots of primary US routes are now interstates in all but name.