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FHWA By Day

A Look at the History of the Federal Highway Administration
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December 5
1970 Regional Administrator Fred B. Farrell represents FHWA at a ceremony marking the opening of the last segment of the West Leg of the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago, IL. Following remarks, U.S. Representative Edward Derwinski, Cook County officials, and Farrell get into their cars and drive through a paper barrier, officially opening the expressway. (See March 1, 1988.)
The Dan Ryan Expressway showing the Genoa Avenue Bridge.
The Dan Ryan Expressway showing the Genoa Avenue Bridge.
1971 At the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, FL, to address AASHO's Annual Meeting, Deputy Administrator R. R. Bartelsmeyer begins a speech on "Highway Transportation in a Changing World" by quoting Alfred Lord Tennyson: "The old order changeth, yielding place to the new." Discussing drastic changes in the highway program, he says, "And we do not decry this change. While its effects often are temporarily painful, and difficult to adjust to, it is as necessary as it is inevitable. For change prevents atrophy and stagnation, and it brings in its wake new ideas, new philosophies, new approaches."
1988 During AASHTO's Annual Meeting, Administrator Robert Farris speaks on "The Nation's Highways: Somewhere Over the Rainbow." He lists four dreams or goals: Cut highway deaths in half, lower travel costs by 25 percent, improve operating efficiency by at least 30 percent, and provide a modern highway to every community of 5,000 or more.
"We've spent a good deal of time trying to identify cost figures and not dreaming some dreams."
Robert E. Farris
Federal Highway Administrator
December 5, 1988
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