During 44 years of fruitful service with the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), Jarl T. Pauls accomplished much valuable research on bituminous paving mixes and was instrumental in the development of low-cost asphalt highways. He worked both in the Bituminous Section of the Physical Research Division of the Bureau and on projects in the field.
Mr. Pauls gained his first engineering experience constructing interurban railway lines on Vancouver Island, beginning immediately after graduation as a civil engineer from the University of Idaho in 1912. A year later he began his work with BPR. His first assignment involved traveling throughout many states to introduce the art of building low-cost, all-weather roads called “object lesson” roads. His next assignment was to the Ohio Post Road—a project that was a milestone for the Bureau as it was the first major cooperative construction project of BPR and one of the first large paving projects constructed in the United States.
Mr. Pauls served in the U. S. Army during World War I but returned after discharge to the Bureau’s laboratory in Arlington, Virginia, where he was assigned to research activities. After studying the effect of truck traffic on various types of pavements, he left Arlington to do research on the design of low-cost bituminous roads in Alabama, South Carolina and other southeastern states. Then, in 1926 he was recalled to Arlington to become head of the Bituminous Section of the Physical Research Division. He held this position for 31 years before his retirement in 1957.
Mr. Pauls was also the author of an outstanding article that appeared in Public Roads magazine. It was entitled “Bituminous Treatments Used on Roads of Intermediate Type in the Western States.”
Elected: 1965
