The nation’s interstate highway system turns 70 on Monday, as suspense builds over whether Congress will reauthorize a key transportation funding law and uncertainty grows in states about how to maintain aging roads and bridges.
President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 on June 29, launching a decades-long construction spree. The result was a network of safer, faster multi-lane highways criss-crossing the country totaling more than 45,000 miles. Drivers were no longer limited to slower and often dangerous two-lane roads.
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