Minnesota Highways, July 1952

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VOL.   1,  NO.  9
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
JULY,  1952
Minnesota's Share of New U.S. Road Aid $13,744,000
Minnesota will receive approximately $13,744,000 in
federal aid road-building funds during each of the next two
fiscal years as a result of Congressional legislation recently
signed by the President. This is an increase of almost two
million dollars over the $11,900,000 which the state was
allotted this year.
TRAFFIC FATALITIES BY COUNTIES
,FII?<T HALF 1952/COMPARED WITH JAME PEBlOO 1951
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MORE IN 1952   BM
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FIGURE* IN COUNTIES <HOW
DEATH* THROUGH JUNE 30,1952
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raffic Deaths Less In 1952
While still presenting a tragic picture, traffic fatalities in
Minnesota were less for the first six months of the year over
the same period in 1951. The reduction in deaths for the
same period shows about 25 per cent lower for 1952. During
the first half of 1951, 254 lives were lost in traffic accidents,
while this year, for the same period, just 188 have been
killed in traffic.
The above map shows a comparison by counties of the record for
this year. All of the counties in white have contributed to the better
record of 1952 by having fewer fatalities than during the similar period
of 1951. The high number of counties, more than half in the state,
that have fewer traffic deaths is an important factor in the overall
reduction in deaths. There are 46 counties that have reported a reduction for this year. Included in this group are the three having the
largest population in the state—Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis.
In these three counties alone, there were 27 fewer deaths during
the similar period.
rhe dark picture, though, is shown by 20 counties who reached
Sad-year mark  with poorer records  than  they  had  a  year  ago.
A substantial item of the increase, however, is represented by
a new allocation of $654,000 for
expediting development of crucial
highways on the Interstate System.
In Minnesota, these comprise some
700 miles of strategic highways,
including all of T.H. 16 from
LaCrescent to Manley, T.H. 69
from Emmons to Albert Lea and
T.H. 65 from Albert Lea to Minneapolis with T.H. 13 from its junction with T.H. 65 to Minneapolis
designated as an alternate route.
Other Minnesota highways included in the Interstate System are
T.H. 12 from the Hudson bridge
to St. Paul, T.H. 8 from Minneapolis to Jet. T.H. 61, T.H. 61 from
St. Paul to Duluth, T.Hs. 218, 152
and 52 from Minneapolis to Moorhead and T.H. 53 from Duluth to
International Falls.
Other annual allotments, all to
be available as of July 1, 1953,
are $6,405,000 for rural primary
trunk highways, $4,517,000 for
secondary rural highways, and
$2,168,000 for improvements of
arterial routes  in  urban areas.
For the past several years, the
Department of Highways has been
turning over virtually all of the
monies allotted to the state for
secondary highways to the several
In these counties, there were more
fatalities this year. While most of
the individual counties' increases
were very slight, two—Blue Earth
and Dakota—have had 14 more
deaths than they had in the first
six months of last year. An ironical side of this is that both counties received honors for their
achievements in preventing traffic
deaths during 1951.
However, traffic accidents with
multiple deaths, for example in
Blue Earth county where 7 persons
died in 3 accidents, made the total
very high.
On the map, those counties
(Continued on page  2)
counties, for use in building up
their main-travelled county roads.
The federal aid secondary system
includes approximately 4,400 miles
of state trunk routes and 10,000
miles of county roads and as yet
no decision has been made as to
what proportion of next year's FAS
allotment will be required for
secondary trunk route improvements and what amount may be
turned over to the counties.
All of these federal funds,
whether utilized by the state or
relinquished to the counties, must
be matched with state or county
funds before they can be used for
construction of urgently needed
improvements.
Minnesota's increased share of
1954 and 1955 fiscal year allotments was due to stepping up of
the total of highway fund authorizations by Congress in recognition
of the mounting urgency of highway improvements to meet soaring
traffic demands. The new Federal
Aid Act of 1952 authorizes $575,-
000,000 in what are known as
regidar federal aid funds for each
of the fiscal years as compared to
$500,000,000 a year provided in
the 1950 Act. By comparison with
the 1950 Act, the new bill provides $247,500,000 for Federal Aid
Primary roads as against $225,000,-
000 previously; $165,000,000 for
FAS roads as compared with $150,-
000,000 and $137,500,000 for
urban improvements as against
$125,000,000. In addition it provides $25,000,000 for Federal Aid
work on the Interstate System.
In addition to the "regular" allocations which must be locally
matched, the new bill carries $50,-
000,000 for access roads to critical
or defense industries; a $10,000,-
000 emergency fund; $22,500,000
for national forest highways; $10,-
000,000 for national parkway
roads; $10,000,000 for Indian
roads and $2,500,000 for public
lands roads.