Design

Some reports from Colorado say that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was especially interested in an interstate highway system partially because of his experiences going back and forth between Denver to Fraser to fish. Traffic jams on old U.S. 6/U.S. 40 were nothing new in the area; reports say the President was stuck on several major jams on his way back from fish on Sunday evenings and felt an interstate system would take care of such problems in Colorado and elsewhere.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1952 authorized the first funding specifically for System construction, but it was only a token amount of $25 million per year for FYs 54 and 55. Legislation in 1945 authorized an additional $175 million annually for FYs 56 and 57.

Under the leadership of President Eisenhower, the question of how to fund the Interstate System was resolved with enactment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. It served as a catalyst for the System's development and, ultimately, its completion. Title I of the 1956 act increased the System's proposed length to 41,000 miles. It also called for nationwide standards for design of the System, authorized an accelerated program, established a new method for apportioning funds among the states, changed the name to the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, and set the Federal Government's share of project cost at 90%.

Title II of the Act – entitled the Highway Revenue Act of 1956 – created the Highway Trust Fund as a dedicated source for funding the Interstate System.

Revenue from the Federal gas and other motor-vehicle user taxes was credited to the Highway Trust Fund to pay the Federal share of interstate and all other federal-aid highway projects. In this way, the Act guaranteed construction of all segments of the system on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, thus satisfying one of President Eisenhower's primary requirements, namely that the program be self-financing without contributing to a federal budget deficit.

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