First new U.S. Interstate highway contractIn 1956, the first new contract to build a section of the U.S. Interstate Highway system, awarded after the signing of the Highway-Aid Act of 1956, was for U.S. Route 66 in Laclede County, Missouri, which became Interstate 44. The Highway-Aid Act of 1956 established 90% federal funding for a System of Interstate and Defense Highways across the U.S., making it possible for States to afford construction of the important network of national limited-access highways. Other notable firsts related to the U.S. Interstate highways are claimed by the States of Pennsylvania (which has the oldest section of Interstate Highway, built 1 Oct 1940, years before the Highway Aid Act of 1956, but later part of the Interstate system) and Kansas, which began the first concrete paving under the Act, on 26 Sep 1956.«[Image: Sign which reads "This is the First Project in the United States on which actual construction was started under the provisions of the new Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. Missouri State Highway Commssion. Cameron, Joyce & Company Contractor."] |
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