Industry’s Largest R&D Effort Founded Interstate Construction
As the U.S. Interstate Highway System was taking shape, state highway agencies charged with building it faced an immense challenge. If the system was to last longer than previous American highways, transportation officials found they needed solid facts and figures on performance and behavior of pavement structures to guide them in designing and building the largest public works project in U.S. history.
In 1951, the American Association of State Highway Officials began planning a road test, choosing a site in Ottawa, Ill., along a right-of-way that would become Interstate 80. There, environmental and subgrade conditions were representative of a good portion of the U.S.