U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta cuts the ribbon to launch the 50th Anniversary of the Interstate celebration.

Front row, left to right: Gary Ridley, Director, Oklahoma Department of Transportation; Gloria Jeff, Director, Michigan Department of Transportation; Robert Skinner, Executive Director, Transportation Research Board; Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation; John Horsley, Executive Director, AASHTO; and Peter Ruane, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Road and Transportation Builders Association.

Others pictured, left to right: William Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association; Alan Pisarski, Chairman TRB History Committee; Michael Meyers, Vice Chair, TRB Executive Committee; Harold Linnenkohl, President, AASHTO, and Commissioner, Georgia Department of Transportation; Steve Sandherr, CEO, Associated General Contractors of America; and David Sprynczynatyk, Vice President, AASHTO, Director, North Dakota Department of Transportation.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta joined leaders of the organization representing America's state departments of transportation and engineering experts today at an event kicking off "The Year of the Interstate" – coast-to-coast activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Interstate Highway System.

"This network of roads is the backbone of the strongest and fastest-growing economy anywhere," said Mineta, who delivered his comments at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. "We're in a new century now … time to start thinking about the next 50 years, and how we're going to build and maintain those new roads to keep the economy moving forward."

 "The Interstate System has long been considered one of the greatest engineering achievements of all time, but it has also been the linchpin of the U.S. economy," said Harold Linnenkohl, President of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation. AASHTO, which represents the state transportation departments in Washington, D.C., is leading the national commemoration of the Interstate golden anniversary.

"Most Americans alive today have little experience of what the world was like without an Interstate Highway System," noted John Horsley, Executive Director of AASHTO. "But even as we take it for granted, we fail to recognize that virtually all our goods – from food and clothing to the stuff we send for on eBay – move on the Interstates en route to our homes."

AASHTO plans a national coast-to-coast convoy in June that will hark back to a trip made in 1919 by Dwight D. Eisenhower, then a young soldier. That early trip – a muddy, tortuous journey from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco that took months – turned the man who got the Interstate system approved by Congress into a good-roads advocate throughout his life.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta cuts the ribbon to launch the 50th Anniversary of the Interstate celebration.

Front row, left to right: Gary Ridley, Director, Oklahoma Department of Transportation; Gloria Jeff, Director, Michigan Department of Transportation; Robert Skinner, Executive Director, Transportation Research Board; Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation; John Horsley, Executive Director, AASHTO; and Peter Ruane, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Road and Transportation Builders Association.

Others pictured, left to right: William Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association; Harold Linnenkohl, President, AASHTO, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Transportation; and Helen Sramek, AAA.

Photo courtesty of AAA.

AASHTO's convoy will begin in San Francisco on June 15 and travel the Interstate 80 corridor to Washington, D.C., arriving June 29, on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Interstate Highway Act by former President Eisenhower. A smaller group will temporarily leave the main route to travel to the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas prior to rejoining the convoy. State transportation departments have planned many family-friendly events at stops along the convoy route.

In addition, AASHTO is also conducting an extensive research program and is planning policy conferences on options for the future Interstate Highway System.

Also speaking at the news conference Monday were Transportation Research Board Executive Director Robert Skinner, Oklahoma Department of Transportation Director Gary Ridley and Michael Meyer, TRB's Vice Chairman.

For more information about the Interstate Highway System 50th Anniversary, see AASHTO's website at http://www.interstate50th.org/ . A four-minute video about the history of the Interstate system and the promise of technology in making it safer and more efficient can be viewed at the website http://www.beerymedia.com/interstate50th2.mov (Quicktime needed to view).

The full text of Mineta's remarks can be found on the USDOT website http://www.dot.gov/affairs/minetasp012306.htm.