Posted on May 20, 2026 by Rafae Ghani
This op-ed was originally published by American Affairs on May 20, 2026. Click here to read the entire piece.
The Interstate Highways run through America as asphalt and concrete strands, binding the nation together, facilitating interstate commerce, and enabling a uniquely mobile American culture. They are fundamental to the operating system of American life, yet few appreciate their scale as the largest public works project undertaken in U.S. history and one of the few engineered structures visible from space.
America’s Interstate system emerged in its current physical and administrative form in response to the technological innovation of mass manufactured automobiles, defense needs amid the specter of the Cold War, and political compromises among different interest groups. Development started 110 years ago, with the passage of the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916, marking the first time the federal government provided support for nationwide roadbuilding. The Interstate Highway System as we know it today was subsequently authorized when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law.
Seventy years after the passage of that milestone law, the expiry of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in September 2026 offers an opportunity to bring Eisenhower’s transportation legacy into the twenty-first century. As surface transportation legislation is due for reauthorization at the end of the 2026 fiscal year, Congress has an opportunity to leverage this process in order to advance industrial policy goals across a host of fields; foremost among these is a materials revolution in the raw materials and production processes used to make cement, concrete, and asphalt—the building blocks of American transportation and building infrastructure. This revolution can be accelerated by the scaling up of domestically manufactured, low-carbon variants of these essential materials.
Congress should approach this surface transportation reauthorization by channeling the intent of the 1956 law, which bolstered economic growth and national security. It should be noted, however, that utilizing surface transportation in this broader stimulative way would represent a departure from contemporary approaches to highway legislation.
In recent authorizations, debates centered on issues such as resolving the fiscal solvency of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and expanding federal support for multi-modal transportation (including as light rail and mass bus transit). In other words, authorizations tended to focus on what to build, how fast to build, and how to finance the system. But 2026 will push Congress to confront the question of what we build with; the materials revolution provides an answer and pursuing it will lead to valuable supply chain and emissions reductions benefits.
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