Page 48 - Planning and Design of Airports

26 Airp o r t Pl anning

Congress was receptive to this recommendation and passed the
Airways Modernization Act of 1957 (Public Law 85-133) establishing
the board for a 3-year term.
In the meantime, there were more midair collisions and reports of
near misses were given wide circulation. Costly disagreements
between the CAA and the military on the type of navigational aids to
be used on the airways no doubt also spurred Congressional action.
As a result, instead of taking 2 or 3 years to create a single aviation
agency as was predicted, the Congress acted favorably on the legisla-
tion within a year of the passage of the Airways Modernization Act.
This legislation is known as the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (Public
Law 85-726). This law superseded the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938
but not the Federal Airport Act of 1946.
The principal provisions of the law insofar as organizational
changes were concerned are as follows:

1. The Federal Aviation Agency was created as an independent
agency with an administrator directly responsible to the
President. The agency incorporated the functions of the Civil
Aeronautics Administration and the Airways Modernization
Board, both of which were abolished.
2. The Civil Aeronautics Board was retained as an indepen-
dent agency including all its functions except its safety
rule-making powers, which were transferred to the Federal
Aviation Agency.

Creation of the U.S. Department of Transportation
For many years it had been argued that there had been a proliferation of
federal activities with regard to transportation. For example, the Bureau
of Public Roads was part of the Department of Commerce whereas the
Federal Aviation Agency was an independent agency. It was felt by dif-
ferent transport interests that there was a lack of coordination and effec-
tive administration of the transportation programs of the federal gov-
ernment resulting in a lack of a sound national transportation policy. It
is interesting to note that the first legislative proposal in this direction
dates back to 1874. However, in recent years, the involvement of the
federal government in the development of the transportation systems
of the nation has been enormous, requiring much more coordination
among federal transport activities than ever before. With this as a back-
ground, a Cabinet-level Department of Transportation (DOT) was cre-
ated headed by the Secretary of Transportation (Public Law 89-670). The
department began to function on April 1, 1967.
The agencies and functions transferred to the Department of
Transportation related to air transportation included the Federal
Aviation Agency in its entirety and the safety functions of the Civil