1925 | C. H. Purcell, BPR's District 3 Engineer in Portland, OR, opens bids for several projects in the Pacific Northwest, the most important of which is the Transmountain Road (Going-to-the-Sun Road) in Glacier National Park, MT. The low bid of $869,145 for 12.4 miles of construction is submitted by Williams and Douglas of Tacoma, WA. The idea for the highway came from NPS founder and Director Stephen T. Mather. (See July 15, 1933.)"It is doubtful if any other road in America can in the same distance unfold to the traveler such a grand array of beautiful forests, dashing mountain torrents, wonderful gorges and valleys, towering cirques, a hundred waterfalls, glaciers, and a vista of bold needle-peaked mountains and serrated escarpments, as will [the Going-to-the-Sun Road]." |
1947 | PRA holds the first meeting of the Board of Urban Consultants. The 2-day meeting covers questions related to the 1944 Federal-Aid Highway Act, the status of urban projects, intergovernmental cooperation, and urban planning problems. |
1949 | BPR issues instructions and forms for the Board of County Engineer Consultants to study local highway administration as part of a larger BPR study, requested May 27 by the Senate Committee on Public Works, on the economic, engineering, financial, and administrative phases of the local rural road problem. The report is submitted in January 1950. |