REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC 

 ROADS AND RURAL ENGINEERING. 



United States Department of Agricui.ture, 



Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, 



Washington, D. C, October 16, 1917. 



Sir : I have the honor to submit herewith the report of the Office 

 of Public Roads and Rural Engineering for the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1917. 



Respectfully, 



L. W. Page, DireGtor. 

 Hon. D. F. Houston, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The administration of the Federal aid road act, approved July 11, 

 1916, so broadened the scope of the office as to necessitate an entire 

 reorganization. To meet the new conditions, the work of the office 

 was grouped in two branches, loiown, respectively, as the engineer- 

 ing branch and the management and economics branch. At the 

 head of these two branches were placed a chief engineer and a chief 

 of management, respectively, who reported to the director. Two 

 general inspectors were appointed, reporting immediately to the 

 director and operating independently of the two branches. The field 

 work was organized into 10 districts, numbered from 1 to 10, re- 

 spectively. A district engineer was placed in charge of the work 

 of each district and reported directly to the chief engineer. 



FEDERAL AID ROAD ACT. 



The Federal aid road act marked a long advance in Federal policy 

 concerning the improvement of the public highw^ays. For more 

 than 20 years the efforts of the Federal Government had been re- 

 stricted to research and education for the purpose of developing 

 improved methods of road construction and maintenance and im- 

 parting useful laiowledge along these lines to local road builders. 

 The Federal act carried a large appropriation, $75,000,000, to be 

 expended during the five-year period in connection with at least an 

 equal amount to be provided by the States in the construction of post 

 roads. The act also carried an appropriation of $10,000,000 to be 

 expended in forest road improvement, but this phase of the act will 

 be dealt with in a separate section of the report. 



Under the authority contained in the act to make rules and regu- 

 lations there were called into conference at Washington on August 

 16. 1916, the heads of the various State highway departments, and 

 to them was submitted a draft of rules and regulations Avhich had 

 been prepared in this office in cooperation with the solicitor of tlie 



359 



