Interstate Highway Symposium—An Introduction

In January of this year, the Nebraska Department of Roads inauspiciously marked Nebraska’s entry into a new era of highway construction and motor vehicle travel when it accepted the first segment of Interstate Highway constructed in this state and opened it to the public. Designated as a part of Interstate Route 80 and distinctively marked with the red, white, and blue shield of the Interstate System, the newly opened section typifies the type of highway construction which will eventually allow the motoring public to travel from coast to coast and border to border upon divided four-lane highways designed for both speed and safety. Within a few short years, Interstate Route 80 will span nearly 400 miles between Omaha and the Nebraska-Wyoming border, providing Nebraska with a major east-west arterial highway free of grade intersections, railroad crossings, and traffic signals. After years of Congressional apathy in programming a national system of modern highways, the sudden passage of the Interstate Highway Act by Congress in 1956, and the rapid expansion of the program since that time, has found many legislators, most of the general public, and not a few attorneys with little or no comprehension of the Program and the many legal and social problems involved. In order that members of the Nebraska Bar may more fully understand the new Program, the Nebraska Law Review is pleased to dedicate this issue to the Interstate Highway Program, and to a discussion of its major features and problems