tion, as of October 20, with Interstate

tion, as of October 20, with Interstate funds, wherein 90 percent comes from Federal taxes and 10 percent from State Taxes.

Federal reports from Virginia and other States reveal that the big push on Interstate superhighway construction is just ahead. In Virginia, for example, according to the Bureau of Public Roads, right-of-way acquisition is in progress for more than 200 miles of Interstate mileage in the State at this time_either preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition or actual construction.; and Virginia projects representing nearly $100 million in Federal tax dollars already have been approved by. the Bureau of Public Roads. In general, one State tax dollar must be scraped up for every nine of these Federal dollars spent on the Interstate routes, which are averaging out, at the moment, at $1.1 million a mile.

Despite their tremendous cost, the superhighways represent only a minute percentage of the total road mileage of the nation, and, in home of the addresses by highway experts presented at the Lexington conference last week, there was an ominous portene for the hard-pressed taxpayers. There was a suggestion that the increase in the motor vehicle use in the next 10 or 15 years may have been underestimated-grossly, and that much of the superhighway m i 1 e a ge may prove to be inadequate even before the program is finished.

Although not even preliminary data have been made public, the carefully controlled tests of pavement wear and damage from vehicles of various sizes and roads also may indicate the need for even more expensive construction than now in use on major highways. Test vehicles, driven by Army personnel, have been pounding over an especially-built test road in Illinois for months now, and will continue to do so into next spring, with detailed wear and tear information,