A wartime shop safety check-list

In an article about shop safety during wartime appearing in the July 1943 issues, editors provide a list of “rules” for shop safety …

“The war compels a special vigilance. War news, possibly striking close to home, is certain to distract workers’ attention from what they are doing. These rules will aid safety education of new workers in the highway shop, and in reminding more experienced men that the chances of being laid up as the outcome of an accident is as good as ever.”

January 1944 issue—the glitch in post-war planning

“Failure of highway organizations to develop plans for projects that will be all ready to go at the end of the war isn’t always an indication of indifference or pure procrastination of caution amid uncertainties, including uncertainty about what the federal government is going to do. Often the only reason why preparation of plans is far behind schedule is that the technical manpower needed for the work simply isn’t available.”

Attitude of survival

In an article on the condition of U.S. road maintenance during the war period, M.B. Hodges, Maintenance Engineer, Texas Highway Department wrote in the January 1944 issue, “As we enter the year 1944, we look forward with some optimism—and yet there are no real grounds for such an outlook. Conditions could not be much worse than they have been, and they should be much better. Maintenance demands go on in war years as in peace years, regardless of wartime strains on basic resources. We are going to have to work and work as we never have in years gone by.”

Preparing for the influx of veterans to return home—from the March 1945 issue

“We have made ready for our veterans’ homecoming. The boys who come back from the war will not be the same boys who went away. Tact and patience on the part of fellow-employees will help smooth their way.”

“Warren County Mich. is prepared to fit its returning servicemen into civilian life through the means of a liberal, sympathetic veteran policy. Men who have neuro-psychiatric difficulties need special attention.”

On the manpower shortage…from the April 1944 issue…weeks before V-E (Victory Europe) Day

“How are we going to get post-war projects into the blueprint stage? What will we use for engineers and draftsmen? The shortage of technical manpower has raised these perplexing questions for highway departments in every part of the country.”

The Post-war Era is here

In an editorial title “The Post-war Era is Here,” Editor C.M. Nelson penned the following editorial in the September 1945 issue just a few weeks after V-J (Victory Japan) Day:

“We are living in the post-war era. Are we ready for it? If peace finds the nation unprepared, it isn’t because we haven’t been warned. We shall soon have a chance to find out how much more security there is in forthright plans than in illusions of an automatic and assured transition to a normal and comfortable peacetime world. The end of the war brings new responsibilities and the opportunity to carry on with unfinished highway business.”

The 1950s

America celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Interstate System in 2006. The decade of the 1950s was, perhaps, the most important in the history of highway and bridge construction the United States with the building of the “Eisenhower Interstate Highway System.”