BUREAU OF PUBLIC EOADS. 495 



Under the terms of the Federal-aid road act the apportionments to 

 the States for each fiscal year remain available for expenditure until 

 the close of the succeeding fiscal year, but it is construed that funds 

 covered by agreements are expended within the meaning of the law. 

 Each State had a sufTicient amount of funds under agreement at the 

 close of the fiscal year to prevent its losing any part of the funds 

 apportioned to it. 



The fact that nearly $86,000,000 of Federal aid was allotted this 

 year indicates that it is only necessary to maintain the present rate 

 to assure the allotment of the entire unallotted balance of $156, 911, 826 

 before the end of the fiscal year 1922, which is the date on which the 

 last of the appropriations wOl lapse. 



At the end of the fiscal year there were 1,835 projects under con- 

 struction, involving 14,940 miles and Federal aid to the amount of 

 $103,925,094. These projects were in various stages of completion. 

 The Federal aid allotted for the completed work amounted to 

 $31,174,732. Many of the projects were more than 90 per cent com- 

 plete; the average project was 30 per cent complete, the work 

 done on them being roughly equivalent to the work required to 

 entirely complete 4,500 miles. 



In addition to this work done on projects still under construction 

 at the end of the year, there were 292 projects, involving 1,677 miles 

 and $8,920,353 of Federal aid, which had been entirely completed. 

 Including the projects under construction and completed at the end 

 of the year, there were 16,617 miles of Federal-aid road which had 

 been placed under contract, a mileage which exceeded the aggregate 

 length of the projects for which formal agreements had been exe- 

 cuted by 1,439 miles. This condition results from the ruling of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, which permits projects to be placed under 

 contract as soon as the plans, specifications, and estimates have been 

 approved in order to expedite the work. 



Including the Federal aid allotted for completed portions of proj- 

 ects under construction and to projects entirely completed, the Fed- 

 eral monev allotted for completed work up to the end of tlie year 

 amounted'^to $40,095,085. At the end of the fiscal year 1919^ the 

 amount allotted for completed work was only $4,658,749, so that the 

 Federal aid allotted to work completed during the year was 

 $35,436,336. These figures do not represent actual vouchers paid. 

 They are compiled from the reports of the district engineers on com- 

 pleted work and represent the value of the finished work more 

 accurately than the sum of the vouchers paid, because of the lag 

 which exists between the completion of the work and the pajTiient 

 of Federal aid. The total cost of the work completed during the 

 year, iiiehiding the amount paid bv the States, was approximately 

 $80,000,000. 



The rate of expenditure is increasing rapidly from month to month 

 as more and more of the projects which have passed through the pvv- 

 liminarv stages go under construction. The expenrliture of 

 $S(), ()()(), 000 for tlie year will l)e greatly exceeded next year, but even 

 this rate goes far beyond the rate of expenditure in the construction 

 of the Panama Canal. The pei-formance of the Clovernment in the 

 construction (if the canal has been regarded tlie world over as a record- 

 breaking achievc^ment in i-espect to the dispatch with which it was 

 carried out. The cost of that work, however, was only $373,000,000^ 



