Interstate Highway System: 50th Anniversary

Steve Melito writes "This week, CR4: The Engineer's Place for Discussion and News, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System, "a giant nationwide engineering project" that transformed a nation. In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers described the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System as "one of the Seven Wonders of the United States". In 2006, this network of roads includes 46,000 miles of highway; 55,000 bridges; 82 tunnels, and 14,000 interchanges. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), excavation for the interstate system has moved enough material to bury the State of Connecticut knee-deep in dirt. The amount of Portland cement could build more than 80 Hoover dams, or lay six sidewalks to the moon. The lumber used would consume all of the trees in 500 square miles of forest. The structural steel could build 170 skyscrapers the size of the Empire State Building, and meet nearly half of the annual requirements of the American auto industry. Check back with CR4 all week as we cover the 'Roots of the Road,' 'the Politics of Passage,' 'Adventures in Civil Engineering,' and 'The Road Ahead.'" One of the things that's interesting about why Eisenhower pushed for the highway system was that he saw the Autobahn system in Germany during the occupation post-WWII and knew that that was one of the things that the United States needed to develop.

Comments

Enterprise Java Solutions ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Integrate business processes among service consumers, brokers, and providers with Enterprise JavaSpam (EJS). How can a consumer most effectively tap into a range of options and dynamically perform automatic spam? Consider this scenario: You've decided to focus on the core business needs of your cheap viagra online store. To do this, you would need to outsource the spam service portion of your business to a company that specializes in this field. How can you get the customized service you need without paying a small fortune for a company to code a solution from scratch, just for you? The key is a paradigm shift: participate in a mediated exchange. The business environment remains competitive, and companies are looking at how they can focus more on their core business proposition. Outsourcing common business services - such as spamming nerd boards - rather than creating and maintaining separate IT infrastructures saves time and money. However, as a consumer of these services, you want to make sure the spam solution you outsource can be easily and affordably customized to suit your specific company needs and that you aren't left with an off-the-shelf solution that inhibits the way you do business.