CONSTRUCTING THE RECOMMENDED INTERREGIONAL SYSTEM
In considering the actual construction of the interregional system in accordance with the foregoing principles and the standards in appendix V, several elements need to be taken into account, such as those discussed in the concluding pages of this report.
Condition of Existing Roads, Streets, and Bridges
Measured by the stundards recommended for the interregional highway system, very few of the existing rural roads and almost none of the city streets which conform approximately in location to the recommended system, are adequately improved. Less than 1 percent of the bridges on these rural roads closely approximate the standards proposed.
The only urban facilities approaching the proposed standards that are known to exist on routes of the recommended system are the Cahuenga Pass and Ramona Freeways in Los Angeles; the Oakland Express Highway in St. Louis; the Lakefront Freeway in Cleveland; the Pulaski Skyway in Newark and Jersey City, N. J.; the West Side Elevated Vie way, West Side Improvement, Henry Hudson Parkway, and East Side Drive in New York City; and the Saw Mill River, Cross County, and Hutchinson River Parkways in Westchester County, N. Y.
On the more heavily traveled of existing rural roads approximating the recommended system, the only improvements that are known to approach the proposed standards are the Willow Run Expressway System and Detroit Industrial Expressway in Michigan and possibly the Taconic State Parkway in New York, all of which are toll-free, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Pennsylvania and the Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways in Connecticut, each of which is now operated as a toll road.
Each of these toll roads conforms approximately to a route of the recommended interregional system, and each meets substantially the requirements of standards proposed for the system. The Committee recommends that they be incorporated in the system after appropriate measures have been taken to abrogate the present collection of tolls.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike extends for 160.7 miles from Middlesex near Harrisburg to Irwin near Pittsburgh. If it is taken into the interregional system, the number of access points or interchanges on this route should be increased.
The Merritt and Wilbur Cross Parkways extend for about 42 miles from a connection with New York’s Hutchinson River Parkway to a point northeast of Milford, Conn. No change is required in the present design of these facilities to make them acceptable parts of the interregional system.
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