1800s Prior to 1900s, travel across Nebraska was extremely difficult. Roads were few and far between and as you traveled west from Omaha, any roads that did exist were simply two ruts in the prairie. Prior to World War I the transportation needs of the country were mostly met by steamboats and railways. Farmers experienced difficulties delivering their harvest to markets, especially so when heavy rains caused any trails to become impassible muddy quagmires. As the desire for public, well maintained roads grew, the State of Nebraska recognized this need and passed laws permitting counties to build roads and levy taxes as well as designating section lines as roads. In 1855, Congress appropriated funds for the construction of a military road from Omaha to
Fort Kearney and the Territorial Legislature passed a law on January 26, 1856 placing the authority for construction of roads with the counties through which they ran. It gave the counties the power to levy taxes and appropriate labor for construction. In 1860, a project to build a road from Nebraska City to Fort Kearney was initiated by the Nebraska City community and
Otoe County Commissioners in what became one of the most traveled roads in the west as part of the
Denver Trail. In 1879, the Nebraska Legislature passed a law providing all section lines become public roads. By 1904, Nebraska had almost of roads, the majority of which were section line roads, the condition of which were usually poor. During the late 19th century, various interest groups began putting pressure on the Federal Government to examine its role in national road development. Groups such as the
Good Roads Movement lobbied local, state and federal officials on the benefits of a good road network, not just for bicyclists, but for the benefit of rural communities and farmers. In response to this movement, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and former acting governor of Nebraska,
Julius Sterling Morton set up the Office of Road Inquiry within the Department of Agriculture to investigate the condition of roads throughout the nation. The automobile increased the demand for better roads. Farmers, in particular, pressed for improved farm-to-market roads as they began purchasing automobiles to transport their goods. The Federal Government struggled with their role in the development of an improved road network. In 1912, Congress passed the Post Office Appropriation Act which allotted $500,000 (equivalent to $ in ) for rural road construction to improve mail delivery.
Early 1900s Entrepreneur
Carl Graham Fisher envisioned a transcontinental highway, allowing vehicular travel from
Jersey City to
San Francisco. The plans for this road, named the
Lincoln Highway, went through Omaha and across the entire state of Nebraska. On December 12, 1914, the first charter meeting of the
American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) met in Washington, D.C. to form an association of state highway officials and draft a federal aid road bill. The bill promoted cooperation between the states and federal government, as equals, in the development and improvement of the nation's highways. President
Woodrow Wilson signed the
Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 which provided $75 million (equivalent to $ in ) in federal money in 50–50 matching funds to the states for improving up to six percent of their statewide roads over a five-year period. By 1914, Nebraska had three major highways, the
Meridian Highway, the
Lincoln Highway and the Omaha–Lincoln–Denver (OLD) Highway. While, overall, these highways were in good shape, as they progressed west, they deteriorated into deeply rutted trails. When the
Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 was signed into law the Nebraska Legislature wasted no time and appropriated $640,000 (equivalent to $ in ) to match the appropriation from the Federal Road Fund and authorized the State Board of Irrigation, Highways, and Draining (a predecessor to the Department of Roads) to begin construction. As part of this, the board worked with county officials to devise a plan to connect all county seats in the state with approximately of highways. During the 1920s the state began to lay gravel for state highways and by the end of the decade ranked 14th in the nation in state highway mileage that was graveled or better. In 1926, the Nebraska Bureau of Roads and Bridges began erecting the first state and U.S. Highway markers. Prior to that, signage along highways was non-existent except along the Lincoln Highway where the Automobile Association of California erected red, white and blue enameled steel signs and along the Omaha-Lincoln-Denver highway where local citizens painted route markers on telephone poles. The covered wagon emblazoned on the Nebraska state highway shield was designed by State Engineer Robert Cochran. As funding became an issue and keeping up with maintenance of the existing highway system became difficult, the department realized the public needed to be more aware of the need for proper funding and as a result developed the State Highway Commission in 1953 to act in an advisory capacity to the State Engineer and to formulate a highway system to be financed with revenue produced by highway user taxes.
Interstate Highway System In 1956, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act which authorized the construction of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. This set the stage for a more aggressive approach to the state highway system than before by providing $168 million (equivalent to $ in ) for highway construction before the end of the decade. The first projects under the new act involved the relocation of US 30 east of
Kimball. This section was completed in October 1955 and would later become a portion of Interstate 80 in December 1973. The department's first Interstate project was a section of I-80 near
Gretna that began in June 1957 and opened to traffic in November 1959, ushering in the era of Interstate Highway travel in Nebraska. The Interstate continued to be the focus of development throughout 1960s and 1970s with
I-180 completed in 1964,
I-76 in 1969,
I-480 in 1970,
I-80 in 1974,
I-680 in 1975 and
I-129 in 1977. == See also ==