On the road: the roads of the United States, symbol of the American dream, put to the test by modernity

The first car and first Ford produced in the U.S., the Ford Model T, rolled out of the Detroit factory in 1908 and soon became a symbol of modernization and mass motorization in the United States of America.

Thirty years later, there were already 20 million Model Ts on the road. But there were no long-distance highways—not even construction sites or new plans.

And so, according to records from the time, in 1938 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a map of the United States brought to him, laid it out on his desk, drew three lines from east to west and three lines from north to south, and immediately told the head of the Bureau of Public Roads: “Now build these roads!”

However, it wasn’t until 1956, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that the construction of the Interstate Highways System was approved. It was financed through a fund—the Highway Trust Fund—supported in turn by a gasoline tax.

The presidential call to join in the construction of a vast road network was immediately embraced by major builders, among which Lane Construction stands out. Today part of the Webuild Group, Lane built some of the country’s most well-known highways, including the New York Thruway, the Connecticut Turnpike, and the Massachusetts Turnpike.

In the following forty years, beyond Roosevelt’s three horizontal and three vertical arteries, an entire well-structured road and highway network was built to help drivers navigate.

The Interstates running from south to north are given odd numbers, while those running from west to east are given even numbers.

Looking at the map of the United States, you start from the Pacific Coast with the vertical artery I-5, which runs from Southern California up to Washington State. It continues with the main roads I-15, I-25, up to I-95, which hugs the Atlantic coast and runs from Florida to the Canadian border in Maine.

The major horizontal national roads go from the southernmost, the I-10, to the longest of all, the I-90, which starts in Seattle, Washington and ends in Boston, Massachusetts.

Here too, Lane Construction has contributed over the years to expanding American mobility, leaving its mark on many parts of Interstates I-10 and I-95, on the I-395 Express Lanes extension near Alexandria, Virginia, and on the construction of the I-495 Express Lanes around Washington D.C., as well as on many other strategic routes such as the most recent in Florida in the areas of Lakeland, Orlando, and Tampa through the ambitious expansion project of the I-275.

In the United States, road and highway infrastructure is financed using the “user pay” method—in other words, those who use the services also fund the construction of new infrastructure and the improvement of existing ones. How? Through tolls and, more importantly, fuel and gasoline taxes.

This method has so far helped build a network of approximately 6.7 million kilometers of roads and highways, of which 257,495 kilometers are part of the “Interstate System”—comprising american highway roads connecting major cities and regions across the U.S.

However, over the years, an imbalance has emerged in the allocation of “user pay” funds, resulting in most investments going to state highways and roads, to the detriment of local ones. Local administrations—unsurprisingly—are now working toward a more favorable funding distribution.

And that’s not all. The current tax revenues from the “user pay” method appear to be insufficient to support the growing investment needs of an ever-expanding and increasingly dense road network.

Currently, U.S. road and highway infrastructure funding comes from tolls and, above all, from gasoline taxes and diesel taxes, with varying rates across states.

However, regarding fuel excise taxes specifically, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) states that this method has lost 80% of its purchasing power since 1993—when the federal fuel tax was last raised to 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel.

At the state level, 34 out of 50 states have increased fuel taxation in the past decade. The highest fuel tax is in California (68 cents per gallon); the lowest is in Alaska (8.95 cents).

Furthermore, in light of the growing number of electric vehicles on the road – which don’t contribute to the “user pay” method – some states have begun considering registration taxes for these vehicles or tolls on charging stations.