sive study by the Bureau of Public Roads, scheduled to be completed by January 1961, relating to the proportionate distribution of benefits accruing from the highways to the various classes of highway users and nonusers.

As this committee has been informed, time and again, the results of the study will be useful to Congress in considering a revision of the taxes imposed to support highway construction.

Let me point out another possible use of the study: By identifying the various types of highway beneficiaries and estimating the amount of benefit accruing to each, the study may make it possible to arrive at a reasonably accurate dollar figure for the total value received from the Federal-aid highway system or identifiable portions thereof.

Some benefits, it is true, can never be assigned a dollars-and-cents figure.

For example, it is estimated that 4,000 lives will be saved annually by the completed Interstate and Defense System, because the modern design of these highways will eliminate many traffic accidents, particularly the usually fatal head-on collisions. We might take the average age of the traffic victim, assume a lifetime earning capacity, and work out the figures to show the manpower loss from premature death, but, as we all know, such ghoulish calculations are inadequate to measure the value of the 4,000 lives saved each year.

At the same time, each of us who owns an automobile and buys accident insurance knows that the cost of property damage and personal injuries resulting from highway accidents is appallingly high. It amounts, according to a recent report by the Bureau of Public Roads, to 122 cents per gallon of gasoline consumed.

For the year 1957, the Association of Casualty and Surety Compa-nies estimated the property damage from accidents at $7.25 billion, an amount which closely approximates the total spent for highway construction and maintenance that year. This loss amounted to $2,114 for every mile of road and street in the Nation, and $116 for every motor vehicle be registered.

On the Interstate System, which is expected to carry at least 20 percent of all U.S. traffic by 1975, accident costs will be reduced from 1 cent per vehicle mile to 0.3 cent per vehicle mile, a total saving of at least $750 million a year.

There are several reasons for expecting such a good safety record from the Interstate and Defense System. First and foremost of these reasons is controlled access, where vehicles are permitted to enter and leave the highway only at certain designated points.

Quoting from "The Federal Role in Highway Safety" to compare safety records of similar highways with and without access control: In Virginia, the controlled-access Shirley Highway experienced a fatality rate of 0.8 deaths per 100 million vehicle-miles, as compared with a death rate of 10.6 on parallel U.S. No. 1.

In Maryland, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway-Expressway with controlled access had a rate of 3.7 compared with U.S. No. 1, which had a rate of 7.4.

In California, a 180-mile rural freeway had a death rate of 4.1 as compared to a 170-mile rural highway without control access which had a rate of 8.8.

The great advantage of the controlled-access highway is the complete elimination of intersections at grade. Some of the favorable statistics cited above are accounted for in part by other design features usually associated with access control. Some of these features are:

Properly designed median strips for traffic separation.

Traffic lanes of sufficient number and width to keep traffic moving. Adequate shoulders for emergency use.

Elimination of sharp curves, both vertical and horizontal, to permit proper sighting of traffic and roadway conditions.

Highway lighting at hazardous areas.

The design standards of the Interstate System, in addition to promoting safety, will have a marked effect on the operating costs incurred in travel on the Interstate System. The elimination of intersections at grade, steep grades and sharp curves will mean a saving of at least $750 million per year in the direct operating costs of trucks and buses and at least $500 million per year in the direct operating costs of passenger

cars.

The interstate highway user will also realize the intangible benefits of time saved, not only on long trips, but, in many cases, in daily short trips to and from his place of employment.

À valuable application of the time-saving feature will be the extension of practical commuting distances, so that the employment opportunities of labor will be greatly broadened because of the workers' increased mobility.

One of the most conspicuous benefits to be derived from a nationwide network of express highways is the stimulus to industrial development which will result from this new extension of our national transportation network. In the same way that economical water and rail transportation led to the development of new cities and new industries in earlier times, the development of an efficient modern highway network will bring new economies to the industries of the United States. Access to markets and sources of raw materials, access to mobilized labor market, the availability of choice sites away from urban congestion; all of these appeal to the industrial site locators.

To support the growing economy of the United States, highways must keep pace with population expansion and industrial expansion. A delay in the compltion of th Defense and Interstate System may result in choking off some of the natural tendency of industry to develop and improve itself.

The importance of the Interstate and Defense System to economic development and highway safety has been discussed more fully, or at least more often, than the relationship the completed system will bear to the requirements of the national defense. When defense requirements are discussed, we are prone to take the narrow or limited view of military requirements and think only in terms of the movement of troops, weapons, and military supplies. Occasionally, we may also mention the possibility of the mass evacuation of population from key industrial cities in the event of attack. The subject is broader than that.

Some of the considerations that apply to the construction of modern military highways are these:

(1) Modern war demands a tremendous outpouring of industrial goods, placing a heavy strain on the entire economy. Express highway connections between the principal centers of industry and population are an important military as well as civil requirement.

(2) Without controlled access, large volume priority movements, frequently essential in time of war, are almost an impossibility, and

certainly cannot be made at the speed possible where access is controlled.

(3) Military freight frequently must be shipped in large packages; highway weight capacities and clearances must be designed accordingly.

(4) Military concepts in the space age place a high priority on mobility, particularly mobility for our defensive weapons so that their locations cannot be pinpointed and hence subjected to early destruction. Overland mobility will be required in addition to mobility in the air and in the sea.

(5) The danger of attack which may cripple air and rail transport by destroying critical airfields and rail facilities may also destroy sections of highways. However, this possibility emphasizes the value of an adequate highway net, because alternate routes, bypasses and circumferential highways will insure the continuation of this artery of transportation.

Still another benefit, of very significant magnitude, is the economic activity generated from the highway construction activity itself. One billion dollars of highway construction contributes to the gross national product as follows:

Quantity

1 For each $1,000,000 in excess of an annual rate of $5,800,000 of construction. These facts convince ARBA that this is a sound investment and one which would show a most favorable cost-benefit ratio. If, for purposes of making such a computation, the useful life of the system is set at 50 years, it would not be difficult to estimate tangible benefits amounting to three or more times the cost.

In the Corps of Engineers, we always used the cost-benefit ratio as a guide to whether a program is economically sound.

At the beginning of this statement, I made reference to the planned expansion of the highway industry to meet the demands of the accelerated highway program.

In the early stages of the interstate and defense program, a large proportion of the effort has been concentrated on those things that must come first, such as design engineering and right-of-way acquisition. For that reason, much of the expansion in the last 3 years in the highway industry has been expansion in anticipation of heavier future demands, rather than expansion to keep up with orders.

In this connection, I want to point to the valuable contribution made to the acceleration of the program by the consulting engineering profession.

A recent study indicates that consultants have performed nearly 40 percent of the nationwide engineering load. It is evident now that a sufficient reserve capacity has been built up by all segments of the industry to meet all foreseeable demands.

For example, the U.S. Bureau of Mines reports that the capacity of U.S. cement plants has increased 35 percent since the start of

1955, with another 5 percent increase due when additions now being built are completed. Against this 40-percent increase in capacity we expect only a 23-percent increase in demand for all uses of cement. In the case of welded-wire fabric used for reinforcing mesh in pavements, shipments have increased as follows:

1956. 1957.

1958.

1959 (estimated).

Tons 96, 000 106,000 115, 000

135, 000

Yet industry sources tell us that the estimated shipments in 1959 represent only about one-half of their total capacity.

Similarly, the market increases in the shipments of structural steel during the post-Korean war period have not even come close to utilizing the capacity of the steel industry for producing structural shapes. Capacity of approximately 7 million tons in 1957 has been increased to 8 million tons, and is scheduled to be increased to 8.9 million tons by 1965, with a considerable part of this expansion being planned to meet the increased requirements of the highway program.

Other uses of steel for highway purposes include the fabrication of corrugated metal pipe, structural plate pipe and pipe arches, and beam-type guardrail.

Since 1956, there has been a 20-percent increase in the capacity of producers of corrugated metal pipe, 100 percent for structural plate pipe and pipe arches, and 100 percent for guardrail; and the number of plants producting these items has increased from 409 to 504.

One of the major new industries in the highway field is the prestressed concrete industry.

The first plant went into production in 1950. By 1953 there were 12 plants; by 1955 some 125 were in operation. By the end of 1957, there were approximately 260 producing plants in operation supplying a demand for 8 million square feet of prestressed concrete bridges.

To say that this industry has expanded to meet the highway construction demand is perhaps an understatement. The highway program was one of the principal reasons for the birth of the industry. The asphalt situation is a special one, because the production of petroleum asphalts can easily be increased without building new refineries. It is necessary only to change the refinery processes to increase the asphalt cuts, or to increase the use of crudes which are naturally high in asphalt content. Altogether, it is estimated that the asphalt industry is capable of producing 10 times the asphalt that is now in demand.

The American Road Builders' Association has found that the development of capacity of highway contractors has matched that of the materials suppliers.

A survey conducted for the original task force reports showed that highway contractors were working at less than half of capacity prior to the beginning of the accelerated national highway program. According to our latest survey, just completed, contractors were working at only 62 percent of capacity, despite an increase in capacity of $600 million of work a year. It is apparent that there is impressive reserve capacity among contractors.

A recent report by the Bureau of Public Roads showed an average of 6.8 bids per contract on Federal-aid primary system projects, with

the low bid price averaging 10.1 percent under the engineer estimate. The present low cost of highway construction is further reflected by the Bureau of Public Roads' index of average bid prices for Federalaid highway construction. The index shows that current prices are actually only 0.3 percent higher now than they were a year ago, having fluctuated up and down within a very small range for the last several quarters.

One of the first industries to respond to the planned accelerated highway program was the construction machinery industry.

In anticipation of the increased demand for roadbuilding machinery, this industry undertook a rapid expansion program to assure an adequate supply. In fact, so rapid was their progress that they soon found themselves facing excessive inventories.

In contemplation of the sustained high level of construction activity held forth in the program set up by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the construction machinery industry has geared itself to meet all possible demands. The importance of the continuity of the highway program to the construction machinery industry is evidenced by the fact that 35.8 percent of its total market is in the highway field.

In short, there is ample reserve capacity in the highway industry. Any shrinkage or stretchout in the program will have an immediate deleterious effect on the highway industry and, indirectly, on our entire economy.

Only last year we witnessed a striking example of the impact of highway construction activity on the national economy. Faced with a decline in business activity which threatened to develop into a serious recession, Congress authorized an emergency program of highway construction and ordered it to be undertaken with the greatest speed practicable, stipulating that all projects financed from the emergency fund be placed under contract by December 1, 1958.

The State highway departments utilizing the plentiful reserve capacity of the highway industry, put 100 percent of the emergency funds to work by the deadline, thus providing 137 million man-hours of employment. This knife cuts both ways.

Just as an increase in a highway program is a direct and immediate stimulus to employment, a cutback in the program, particularly at a time when the industry has geared itself to a higher level of activity, would be a strong factor tending to increase the level of unemploy

ment.

In considering these matters, the committee should take care not to assume that a 1-year halt in the program would mean a 1-year delay in the completion of the Interstate System. The highway industry expansion program which I have described was an economical and noninflationary expansion precisely because the existence of a long-range highway program made planned expansion possible.

In the event of a sudden shutdown, just at a time when the construction phase of the program is getting into full swing, serious distress and dislocation would occur. According to the best estimates that we have been able to make, a 1-year shutdown would mean a 3-year delay because of the inevitable difficulties in reorganizing and retooling.