Praised as the biggest public works project in American history, the Interstate Highway System has been an essential link in connecting us to different communities and moving trillions of dollars worth of goods. In 2026, the highway system will turn 70 years old. While it marks a milestone anniversary, there is a major demand for more investment as roads are highly congested and deteriorating. How did we get here, and what can be improved? Before the Interstate Highway System, most roads were unpaved, making it virtually impossible to pass when it rained. Many roads were also only two lanes wide, one in each direction, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Some lanes were also not as wide as they should have been. Safety was also a major issue, according to the FHA. Businesses were located right along the road, so in order to pull into their parking lots, drivers would quickly slow down to turn into their driveways, causing traffic and potential safety hazards. Trees, utility poles, telephone poles and other objects were often located right along the pavement, making it dangerous to pull over to the side of the road in an emergency. A young Lieutenant Colonel named Dwight D. Eisenhower would experience firsthand the struggles of traveling on these roads when he took part in the first U.S. Army transcontinental motor convoy in 1919. From Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, 282 men with 81 army tankers traveled across the country to test how fast the military could mobilize during wartime conditions. It took the convoy 62 grueling days to travel across the country -- today it would only take someone five days to complete. The convoy would often come across roads in poor condition, resulting in frequent vehicle breakdowns. Eisenhower's experience would later influence his push for the highway system when he would become president. Paving the way In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1944, which asked the government's road agency to establish a "National System of Interstate Highways." Progress in the program would stall as lawmakers debated who would pay for the country's largest construction project. It wasn't until the election of Eisenhower in 1952 that the project would move full speed ahead. Congress decided they would increase taxes on products motorists would use, that includes gasoline, tires and trucks. This way the ones who would end up using the highway system were the ones paying into its construction. President Eisenhower's support helped pass the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, which enacted the construction of 41,000 miles of highway, costing at the time around $25 billion. The highway system forever changed the urban and suburban landscape. Now that it was easier to drive farther distances on safe roads, people started to move out of the cities and into the suburbs. While the freshly paved roads were intended to connect communities, it also further divided communities.Planners routed some highways to cut directly through neighborhoods, thus destroying and uprooting communities that many of which were predominantly Black and brown. Across the country, people started to participate in "highway revolts."For example, residents in San Francisco protested plans to build new freeways, arguing it would ruin communities and businesses. Their voices were heard. In 1959, the city's board of supervisors canceled seven out of the ten planned freeways in the city. Calls for improvement As the Interstate Highway System is about to turn 70 years old, its roads are highly congested and deteriorating. Most sections of the highway system's roadway still have their original foundations and need to be "completely rebuilt from the subbase up," according to a 2019 report by the Transportation Research Board, a division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In order to modernize the highway system, the report calls for: Reconstructing a majority of the interstate highways and bridgesUpgrading most interchanges to improve safety and functionAdding capacity along existing corridorsConstructing new routesConverting some existing routes to interstate standardsChanging some urban roadway segments to maintain connectivity while repairing economic and social disruption Improving highway safety features Improving the Interstate Highway System would require increasing the annual investment from $23 billion in 2018 to $57 billion annually over the course of the next 20 years, according to the report. It will take both the federal and state government to find a solution in investing for the highway system's future. 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