© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

At 60, America's Interstate Highway System Is Showing Signs Of Age

Traffic makes its way along Interstate 80 on July 1, 2015 in Berkeley, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Traffic makes its way along Interstate 80 on July 1, 2015 in Berkeley, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Sixty years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Act of 1956. It marked the birth of the interstate highway system, now a 47,000-mile network designed to ease crowded, crumbling roads in post-war America.

At the time, it was sold as one of the most ambitious public works projects ever, but six decades later, many interstates are overcrowded and under maintained. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson speaks with William Wilkins of The Road Information Program.

— Here & Now (@hereandnow) June 29, 2016

Guest

William Wilkins, executive director of The National Road Information Program (TRIP), a transportation research group. The organization tweets @TRIP_Inc.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags