March 8
| 1973 | The 1.7-mile, $112-million Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel on I-70 in Colorado, bypassing Loveland Pass, opens after a brief ceremony conducted about 500 feet inside the tunnel's entrance west of Denver. The ceremony is moved inside because the weather includes a temperature of 34 degrees and snow flurries. Governor John Love says, "This tunnel, as part of the interstate system, represents the most recent, and possibly the most effective, answer to tying east and west Colorado together and opening the way west." (On July 17, 1973, the one-millionth vehicle passed through the tunnel.) |
| 1990 | In the Old Executive Office Building, President George Bush and Secretary of Transportation Samuel Skinner unveil the National Transportation Policy (NTP), developed by a USDOT team under Deputy Secretary Elaine Chao and Administrator Thomas Larson after an extensive public/private sector outreach. The policy will, in the Secretary's words, "set a course that will ensure we have a transportation system that supports our national goals for the future." The USDOT's legislative proposals for the post-Interstate era-unveiled in this same room on February 13, 1991-are based on the NTP and lead directly to ISTEA.
"An investment in transportation is an investment in America's future." |
