WM. E. WILLEY, STATE ENGINEER

Compared to the great arterial highway systems of the heavily populated midwestern and eastern states and California, the Arizona state highway system is small. But when you measure our highway system in terms of population and area (one of the smallest in population, fifth largest in size) and compare the results with other states we Arizonans, then, can point with pride (and frequently do) to the excellence of our state highways.

Arizona is a travel and a travelled state. In 1955, for instance, out-of-state vehicles alone travelled an average of 2,751,717 vehicle miles daily over the 4,225 miles which are contained in the state system. Local automobiles rolled up last year a total of 4,055,249 vehicle miles daily, mak-ing an average daily highway use in all of 6,806,966 vehicle miles. The total for last year in vehicle miles travelled over the state system was 2,484,542,600, a figure which represents a lot of highway use, and a lot of people rambling merrily along. The gas buggy, we can safely say, is here to stay. The automobile and the high-way over which it must travel are vital and important parts of our life and civilization and will become increas-ingly so in the future.

The Arizona state highway system is a big business. Nearly 2,000 people are employed in its operation, and almost $27,000,000 were spent in the fiscal year 1954-55 to pay the bill of servicing the state's network of high-ways and of maintaining the many other activities of the Arizona Highway Department, so vital for efficient func-tioning and so important to the individual motorist.

The Arizona Highway Commission, policy board

New State Highway Engineer

which is the governing body of the Arizona Highway Department, has permanently named William E. Willey as state highway engineer, the man who is the administrative head of the Arizona Highway Department, the man who will see that when better roads are built Arizona will build them, and the man who will see that the vast sea of traffic using the state system rolls along smoothly and easily. Bill Willey is well qualified for the job, by education, training, industry, and by his zeal for the job at hand. Good roads are his mission in life.

William E. Willey was born in the State of Arkansas in 1909, but comes very close to being an Arizona native, however, since he came to Phoenix at the age of six years.

He attended Monroe School for his elementary education and was graduated from Phoenix Union High School with the class of 1927. It was prior to his graduation in pre-engineering that young Mr. Willey decided upon making a career of that profession. After carefully weighing the merits of several engineering schools, he selected the University of Illinois for his formal education. While working toward his graduation for an Engineering Degree, which he obtained in 1932, Mr. Willey indulged in the usual extra-curricular activities normal in young engineering students. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, and found enjoyable outlets in oil painting and intramural athletics.

After graduation, he returned to Phoenix and accepted employment with the Arizona Highway Department in the Bridge Division, where by 1940 he had become a top-flight designer. It was then, before our

country had become actively engaged in war, that he was called to active duty, holding the commission of 1st Lieutenant in the Reserve. Almost immediately he was transferred from the Signal Corps to the greatly expanded Air Corps. Promotions came rapidly to Lt. Willey and when separated after the end of hostilities, he held the rank of Colonel. At the age of 36, he was one of the youngest Colonels in the Air Corps. Since that time he has played an active part in the program to promote the Air Force Reserve. In 1953 he was in full charge of an Air Force reclassification program in Arizona. At present Colonel Willey is the Commanding Officer of the 9429th Arizona Air Reserve Squadron.

Upon being released from ased from military duty, in 1946, Bill Willey returned to his original love, engineering. He served a short period in the Bridge Division, after which he was named to be the Engineer in charge of Economics and Statistics. He approached his new assignment with vigor, almost immediately injecting new, progressive ideas into the economic phase of engineering. His enthusiasm resulted in a significant lift in the division. Where it had occupied an almost negligible position in the past, he was able in a relatively short time to advance it to major division status in the Highway Department. It is now several times its original size and is looked upon by other engineers and division heads as an absolute necessity rather than an engineering luxury.

He has brought a large measure of distinction to the Highway Department through his never-ending searches for new approaches to old problems. The Sufficiency Rating System, now nationally and internationally recognized, was brought into practical use almost solely as a result of his efforts. He has appeared on four occasions before the Highway Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, D. C. where he presented papers on Sufficiency Rating and the behavior of slow moving trucks on mountain grades. Recently his latest reports on the needs for Uphill Truck Passing Lanes and the safety aspects of a Traffic Shoulder Stripe have received national attention.

When the University of Illinois became cognizant of these distinctions, they decided to confer upon him a Professional Master's Degree in Civil Engineering. The graduation ceremonies in June of 1953 dovetailed with a journey he took to Detroit, where he received the fourth place award of $3,000.00 in the General Motors The Arizona Highway Commission: seated, left to right-Grover J. Duff, Vice Chairman; Frank E. Moore, Chairman; Wm. P. Copple, Member. Standing, l.-r.: Justin Herman, Sec'y; Frank L. Christensen, Member; James R. Heron, Member; Wm. E. Willey, State Engineer contest with an essay on “How to Plan and Pay for Better Highways.” 44,000 entered the competition.

During 1953 and 1954 he served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Western Association of State Highway Officials, and is now member of Executive Board. Currently, he is Secretary of Sub-Committee VIII, National Committee on Urban Transportation. His hobbies are golf, photography and gardening. In the latter field he has been successful in raising one of the few blooming Magnolia trees in the Salt River Valley. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Phoenix Engineers Club and is a registered Civil Engineer with the Arizona State Board of Technical Registration.

Bill Willey is currently occupied with the largest new construction budget in the history of the state, and with urgent plans for the future so that the state highway system can adequately serve the Nation's fastest growing state and the ever-growing number of out-of-state visitors. He also devotes considerable time and energy to the state's engineer-in-training program, the new highway department building, and the so-important training schools for employees in various phases of the state highway system's far-flung and diversified operations. . . . R.Ć.

Another view of U. S. 66, important northern route