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Graft & Patronage. Not even the efficient behemoths, however, can eliminate all the road builder's problems. He must fight a tight-money market to finance his equipment buying, deal with a welter of conflicting and often obsolete state regulations. Road building has always been blighted by graft, ranging from political kickbacks for contracts to small bribes to persuade local police to let the huge machines move over restricted roads to their job sites. Says Pittsburgh Contractor Max Harrison: "When I started out in this business in 1923 everyone connected with it was a crook." While the crooks have become fewer as more and more contracts have been let by competitive bidding, graft and political jobs for incompetents are sure to plague the federal highway program. Road-building scandals have already cropped up in Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, and the Government has temporarily cut off funds from Indiana because of corruption in the buying of land for the new highways.
The biggest problem facing both manufacturer and contractor is impatience. The superhighway program requires many months of preparation—planning, surveying, contracting, acquiring rights of way—before big-scale work can begin. While the states must pass legislation for the 10% of the cost they will raise, many of them have not yet made arrangements to participate in the program. Contracts have so far been let for only 1,000 of the 41,000 projected miles, and only 200 miles have been completed. Though Federal Highway Administrator Bertram D. Tallamy says the program is proceeding on schedule, equipment manufacturers and contractors find it slower than expected. Some manufacturers have been forced to cut back production temporarily while waiting for the program to get rolling.
Years Beyond. For the earthmovers—and the men who make and operate them —the federal program will be only the first giant step in meeting the long-range needs of the nation. By the time the federal program is finished in 1972 (or a few years later, should Congress decide to stretch it out), most of the U.S. roads now in use will be obsolete and in need of rebuilding. Last year 80,000 miles of federal highways alone became obsolete, and thousands of miles of asphalt road built in the '20s are due to outlive their usefulness in the late '50s. Thus, the road-building industry can look forward to a long-range boom that will extend many years beyond 1972.
* A Senate subcommittee voted to expand the planned 41,000-mile route to 48,000 miles to satisfy state requests, add $15.4 billion to the cost, delay completion until 1979. But no action has yet been taken on the measure by Congress.