Arkansas Highway System
The Arkansas Highway System is made up of all the highways designated as Interstates, U.S. Highways and State Highways in the US state of Arkansas. The system is maintained by the Arkansas Department of Transportation, known as the Arkansas State Highway Department until 1977 and the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department from 1977 to 2017. The system contains of Interstates, U.S. Routes, state highways, and special routes. The shortest members are unsigned state highways Arkansas Highway 806 and Arkansas Highway 885, both in length. The longest route is U.S. Route 67, which runs from Texarkana to Missouri.
History
Early beginnings, the "Dollarway"
Travel in Arkansas has come from very humble beginnings. In the late nineteenth century, travelers would follow dirt paths riddled with potholes, and ruts. Bicycles would frequently stick in mud puddles. Trains never became popular in Arkansas, and instead travelers would use horse and buggy to get around the rural parts of state, and bicycles within cities. Across the nation, many cyclists began demanding better roads to use for travel, and these road enthusiasts formed groups to advance their cause. A group of Arkansas cyclists held a good roads convention in Little Rock just before the turn of the century. Arkansas automobile salesmen quickly picked up on the notion that better roads would help their business as well, and became the driving force behind the Arkansas good roads movement. The enterprising salesmen greatly increased the movement's breadth by expanding their scope outside of city streets to farm to market routes, a move that enticed farmers to support the cause. The combination of money from Little Rock salesmen and the large number of farmers in the state made the good roads movement a formidable alliance. At this time, the roads were maintained by a state law that mandated all healthy men of middle age contribute five days of road work annually.Another convention in 1907 formed road districts, but this did not help the situation either. Although the need for improvement was obvious, the citizens had trouble finding funding for their goals. In December 1913, Arkansas formed the "Dollarway", which was the name of a concrete road with asphalt concrete topping. It was opened near Pine Bluff. By 1914, a segment of was opened, the longest paved stretch in the United States. Today, the route is mostly covered by Highway 365, although some original concrete segments are still visible, and the Dollarway Road portion has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Arkansas' "district approach" dooms hopes of unity
Now that Arkansas had discovered a durable paving system, concrete topped with asphalt of "Dollarway pavement", they could replace the often-broken macadam roads. Dollarway was also a more economical choice, as macadam would frequently need replacing. As Arkansans sought improved roads across the state, the General Assembly eschewed centralized planning and financing of transportation corridors, instead passing a law allowing local adjacent property owners to design, construct, and issue bonds for roads within their boundaries. The system led to a fractured series of roadways with inconsistent quality rather than a network, and was often driven by provincial interests, corruption, and fraud. In 1913, the Arkansas Highway Commission was ordered with the task of organizing the state's road system. In 1915, the Commission was charged with misappropriating funds for officials to use on automobiles and gasoline, making the financial situation even worse. The Alexander Road law of 1915 allowed those close to a route to form their own districts and subsequently contract out the work themselves. This resulted in wild variations of how the same road was paved from district to district and from county to county.In 1917, the Arkansas General Assembly enacted Act 105, designating all public roads as state roads eligible to receive federal aid in response to the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. The Act had a limited scope, small appropriation limits, and implementation was delayed nationwide due to World War I. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921, was passed in an effort to remedy the deficiencies of the 1917 legislation. It allowed for funds to be allocated for a state highway system, as long as a central highway authority meeting certain requirements was in charge of disbursing funds, which was not the case in Arkansas at the time. The Arkansas legislature was slow to create an authority capable of meeting the Federal Aid Act's requirements, opting instead to stay with the district approach, which cost the state millions of dollars in funds. During this period, district leaders were caught charging exorbitant taxes for road projects, and especially where districts overlapped, bankrupting farmers. The federal government decided to withhold money from states without a unified highway authority. When the General Assembly again tried to create one, the local county judges blocked the legislation. Since Arkansas was not in compliance with the Federal Aid Act of 1921, the state was declared ineligible for federal funds in 1923.
Arkansas creates the State Highway Commission, restores federal funding
Upon withdrawal of federal money in 1923, Governor Thomas McRae called a special session of the General Assembly to solve the problem. The result was Act 5, commonly known as the Harrelson Road Law. The most significant provision of the law created a state highway system, and the roads within it were eligible for federal funding to be disbursed by the Commission. The Commission gained significant influence over construction by having the ability to disburse federal aid to projects meeting its standards. The law also consolidated all construction and maintenance activities on public roads under the Highway Commission supervision, ensuring roads were built to Commission standards. The law also modified the number of commissioners, how they were appointed, and term limits.The state highway system was first created on October 10, 1923, by the Commission. The group traced all roads designated as "county roads" onto an official map, which became the official State Highway System of Arkansas on December 31, 1924. This map was kept in Little Rock as the official log of routes.
The U.S. Route system came to Arkansas in 1926, and Arkansas gave its state highways numbers to match the national trend of numbered routes. This numbering remains largely intact today. During this time, many motor inns, such as the Tall Pines Motor Inn in Carroll County, Arkansas, or the Crystal River Tourist Camp became favored by motorists over roadside camping. Arkansans and Americans were quickly becoming an automobile culture, and the open road became more accessible to the public.
The Harrelson Road Law also eased the tax burdens of farmers significantly. Property owners wouldn't be fully relieved of financial responsibility until the Martineau Road Law of 1927, when the State of Arkansas assumed all road debt. After assuming this debt, the state added many taxes to the road users instead of the property owners. The State Road Patrol was established in 1929 to police the roads. The State Highway Commission would redesignate Arkansas highways in 1929, including an additional. The situation would worsen with the Great Depression, when Arkansas was forced to default on many highway loans. The Federal Defense Highway Act of 1941 ordered construction funds be used only on important defense highways, but Arkansas's poorly maintained roads needed funding statewide.
Reform efforts
By 1948, the state's highways had deteriorated so far to become a central political issue in the governor's race. Sid McMath, ran on a platform of business progressivism, with highway reform as the cornerstone issue. Taking over as governor after the 1948 election, McMath and the General Assembly passed a bond measure to raise construction and maintenance funds for roads and bridges. A special bond election on February 15, 1949, was voter approved for additional bond funds by an overwhelming margin. The unprecedented highway spending greatly improved and expanded the highway system, but also enabled local potentates to direct funds for political advantage.An audit commission of the Highway Department found widespread corruption and cronyism in early 1952, slowing McMath's reform efforts. He was ousted that fall and replaced by a more conservative Francis Cherry, who sought reforms within the Highway Department. The same election saw voters approving Constitutional Amendment No. 42 by a large margin, which created an autonomous Arkansas State Highway Commission to manage the Highway Department, reducing the governor's influence.
Several other proposals for highway reform were studied during this period. The Arkansas Senate requested a feasibility study for designating all roads in the state as state highways in 1955. If feasible, Arkansas would have likely adopted a system similar to Missouri, which maintains a system of supplemental routes in addition to state highways. Arkansas considered the systems of Delaware, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Mississippi. The first four states listed previously were the only states to have comprehensive state highway plans at the time. Arkansas decided not to begin a comprehensive program, and instead discovered that thousands of miles should no longer even receive county funding due to heavy population losses.