February 8
| 1912 |
OPR assigns R. E. Toms to help the Memphis-to-Bristol
Highway Commission in Tennessee with surveys, general
plans, and administration. The commission guarantees
Toms' expenses under OPR's customary rules. He will
organize surveys under county supervision and draw up
general plans for uniform methods of construction for the
entire road.
| |
| 1979 | The first 5-day pilot workshop is underway in Olympia, WA, on seismic design of highway bridges. The workshop consists of intensified training in structural dynamics, seismology, seismic design methodologies, retrofitting concepts, and advanced topics. The course, with Bill Allen of FHWA's Washington Division Office serving as coordinator, reflects heightened interest in seismic design during the 1970's following the San Fernando Earthquake (February 9, 1971), in California. | |
| 1996 |
With one of the pens President Dwight D. Eisenhower used
to sign the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, President
Bill Clinton signs the Telecommunications Act Conference
Report. The pen was provided by one of the authors of the
1956 Act, former Senator Albert Gore, Sr., whose son,
Vice President Al Gore, was one of the chief backers of
the Telecommunications Act.
"The Interstate Highway Act literally brought Americans closer together. We were connected city to city, town to town, family to family, as we had never been before. That law did more to bring Americas together than any other law this century, and that same spirit of connection and communication is the driving force behind the Telecommunications Act of 1956." |
