Describe the Highway System of a Jurisdiction (Essay Sample)

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The Highway System
Introduction
In the start of 20th century, there was no existence of the uninterrupted system of highway at the national level. In 1811, the first National Road was constructed. The road was constructed between Cumberland in western Maryland and Vandalia. This was set up to facilitate the immigration to the frontier. This highway did not achieve the set objective. During the late 1930s, the country had an interest in a transcontinental system of highways. The then president, Franklin Roosevelt pushed for the construction of a network of roads with an aim of creating job opportunities for the citizens. In the USA, the body that is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the highways is known as the National Highway System (NHS). This network of strategic highways within the country that includes the interstate highway system and roads that serve key airports, seaports, rail and truck terminals form the NHS. The individual states in the country are urged to focus on the federal funds to make sure that the roads and all the highways within their jurisdiction are maintained and improved. This paper will examine the National Highway System of the USA.DiscussionStructure and facilities of the highway systemThe interstate highway system has several facilities. One of the key facilities is a minimum of two lanes in each highway route in the country. The highway should be able to have two lanes in each direction. The construction of the lanes should be 12 ft in width and 10 foot on the right paved shoulder (Swift 94). The highway authority of the country designs the roads with speeds ranging from 50-70 mph. The interstate highway structures include the bridges and tunnels. The bridges are constructed to link up two roads that were separated by rivers or highland terrains. The structure of the corridors of circulation is designed to link the metropolitan areas in the country. The highest elevation system tends to be around 11,200 ft (Moon 116). This is the Eisenhower Tunnel located in Continental Divide in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The lowest elevation in under land is about 52 ft in the New River, California. The lowest elevation underwater is about 103 ft in Fort McHenry Tunnel.The signage methods in the highway system are four. The first method of the signs is located on the ground mostly to the sides of the highway. The signs are mostly located on the right hand of the highway. These are used to indicate exit and rest areas. The second method is to attach the signs meant to signal the motorists to overpass (Moon 69). The other two involve gantries and are usually the common methods to indicate highway signs. The signs can be mounted on half-gantries and located on the side of each highway in the country. It resembles a ground-mounted motorist sign. The second one is mounted on full gantries. This bridges the whole width of the highway and usually shows two or more signs for the highway users to see (Swift 114).
The above image shows the signage method used by the Highway System
Classification of the Roads and Highways
The origin of the Interstate highways system can be traced back in 1941 when the government needed to improve the highway system of the country. The highway committee appointed by President Roosevelt first recommended the a highway system that will have 39,900 miles of the rural routes with an addition of about 5,000 miles of secondary urban routes. Currently, one or two-digit numbers designates the key interstate roads in the country. The roads that run north and south are given odd numbers while the roads that run on the east and west roads are assigned even numbers (Swift 164). According to the structure of the highway system in the country, the north-south roads have their lowest numbers start in the west while the lowest numbers in the east-west roads tend to be in the south. This means that the Interstate Route 5 (1-5) takes the West Coast. The Route 1-10 takes the Mexican border (Moon 91).
The image above shows the Highway Classification system hierarchy.
The Interstate 1-95 takes the East Coast while the Interstate 1-94 lies parallel to the Canadian border. Few segments of the interstate are toll roads, especially in the high-density corridors of circulation (Moon 103). This should exclude several toll bridges and tunnels that are operating. An estimate of 9% of the interstate system in the country is either privatized or owned by states. The three-digit highways tend to be circumferential or radial that their principal objective is to serve the urban areas. These types of the interstate highways are assigned three-digit route numbers. The numbers have one digit prefixed to the two-digit number of its basic interstate highway. The spur roads tend to diverge from their basic source, and they do not return. In these routes, the first digits that are assigned are odd. Unlike the spur route, the circumferential and the radial routes tend to return to their basic source (Swift 164). The first digits that are assigned are even digits.
The image above shows an example of the classification used by the Highway system
Ownership of the Interstate Highway System and how the operations and maintenance are assigned
The ownership of the Interstate Highways is owned by the state in which they are located. Federally owned highway system in the USA is Woodrow Wilson Bridge lo...