Texas. Highway Dept.

The Texas (State) Highway Department (merged into the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation in 1975, and merged again into the Texas Department of Transportation in 1991) was responsible for the building and maintenance of the state's roads and highways from its creation in 1917. Its governing body was a three-member Highway Commission who appointed the state highway engineer, held public hearings, had the authority to create geographical divisions within the Department, and formulated plans or policies for the location, construction, and maintenance of a comprehensive system of state highways and public roads in cooperation with the counties of the State, or under the direct supervision and control of the State Highway Department.

The Texas Highway Department was created during the early twentieth-century movement to stimulate building and improvement of roads throughout the nation. The Federal Aid Road Act of July 11, 1916 (39 Stat. 355; 16 U.S.C. 503; 23 U.S.C. 15, 48), signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, initiated federal aid for highways with the requirement that each state receiving aid have a state highway department that controlled the building of roads. While earlier bills to establish a state highway department in Texas had failed (in 1911 and 1913), the promise of matching federal funds enabled the 35th Texas Legislature to pass House Bill 2, signed into law by Governor James E. Ferguson on April 4, 1917, which created the State Highway Department. The Department was to administer federal funds to counties for state highway construction and maintenance and to provide for state motor vehicle registration, fees from which were to generate the state's required matching funds.

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