Business: Highways: Busy

Almost unnoticed in the recovery from recession, the U.S. road-building program has been gathering momentum, giving the overall construction industry a sharp lift at a time when industrial building is still declining. Builders report that $195 million in contracts for interstate highways went out last month, almost double May’s figure of $105 million. Total contract awards since July 1, 1956: more than $2.2 billion in interstate-highway-construction contracts for 4,938 miles of U.S. highways, plus another $4.7 billion for 65,821 miles of state and local roads. The prospects are that highway work should keep construction activity high through the rest of the year; more than $6 billion of the total estimated $100 billion program wall reach the industry in 1958.