AASHTO: Interstate 50th Anniversary

Dan McNichol

Dan McNichol is a number one best selling author and nationally recognized expert on the U.S. Interstate System and the author of many books on highway construction. Dan has also written for the New York Times and been featured in USA Today as well as CBS News, Fox News, and numerous National Public Radio broadcasts. In 2005, Dan traveled with the History Channel's production crew as an on-air historian for a Modern Marvels program that recently premiered called The Paving of America.

Dan has numerous appearances on film including documentaries by the Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, and Travel Channel. He recently consulted for National Geographic and the BBC on an upcoming production on the Big Dig, the largest single civil project in the History of the United States. In 2003, the American Society of Civil Engineers Boston Chapter recognized Dan as the journalist of the year. That same year, Wentworth Institute of Technology honored him with a Doctorate of Engineering Technology for his contributions to the transportation and engineering communities.

Upon completion of The Roads That Built America for Barnes & Noble, Dan purchased a 1951 Hudson on E-bay. Traveling across America on more than 14,000 miles of Interstate System and Blue highways he lived the American Dream of hitting the open road in what was dubbed by the media as The Great American Road Trip. The successful book tour led to the selling out of its initial print run. The Roads That Built America soon took on a life of its own, listing on Amazon.com for as much as $300 a copy over the following year. Barnes & Noble released the paperback version this year.

Beginning in 1991, he served the Department of Transportation as a White House Appointee. After Hurricane Andrew ripped Florida asunder, Dan worked directly with the Commander in Chief of the disaster relief effort, Secretary Andrew H. Card. Witnessing first hand the power of both Mother Nature and the United States Government, he was a witness to how the Interstate System saved lives during the evacuation of Florida's East Coast and helped put Florida back on sound economic ground.

Today, Dan lives in Boston – just a few feet from the Interstate System – where he continues to write about the nation's highways and byways. His book on the history of paved roads was published and released in 2006. That summer, he and his Hudson joined in the cross country convoy to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of President Eisenhower's Interstate System.