The hearings of the Senate Committee on Public Works in April 1970 afforded an opportunity for the Federal Highway Administration to report on its stewardship in administering the Federal-air highway program. It provides a wealth of information on progress to date toward completing the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and toward improving all Federal-aid highway systems, the status of the Federal Highway Trust Fund, and on planning for post-Interstate highway travel demands. The Stewardship Report also points up the special attention being given to improving safety characteristics of highway and roadside facilities, to the railway-highway grade crossing problem, and to the nationwide need for replacement of obsolete bridges. It discusses the enormous benefits of the highway program not only to highway users but to the social and economic well-being of the nation. America's highways bring immeasurable improvements to every facet of our lives. Finally, the report identifies and describes many highway-oriented activities that are not widely understood. In particular, it describes how highway planning is related to land use planning and how the highway program serves as a positive force for better community development and for the achievement of social and environmental goals. It describes the nation's most advanced relocation assistance program, which is helping raise the housing standards of those displaced by highways. The Stewardship Report was published originally as part of the printed hearings of the April 15, 1970, session of the Subcommittee on Roads of the Senate Public Works Committee. In view of the Stewardship Report's great value for general usage and reference purposes, it is being published separately by the Federal Highway Administration. Chapters 10 and 11 of the original report, which presented a discussion of progress through April 1970 of certain specific urban sections of the Interstate System, have been omitted from the republished edition because of the dated nature of the information contained therein. These chapters are found on pages 92-114 of the Senate Public Works Subcommittee print. F. C. TURNER, Federal Highway Administrator. |