310                              Laws of Maryland                       [Ch. 241

authority to consult, confer, negotiate and conclude agreement
AGREEMENTS with the Bureau of Public Roads and other agencies
of the United States government, representatives of other States, and
other agencies within this State, on all questions relating to all high-
ways on the Interstate system and all highways on the Primary sys-
tem of highways. The Director shall also have complete jurisdiction
and authority over the engineering and right-of-way departments of
the Commission and the entire administrative organization of the
Commission itself. It shall be his duty to carry out and cause to be
performed the construction and maintenance of highways on the Sec-
ondary system after the policy relating to construction and main-
tenance has been formulated by the Commission. He shall have the
sole authority to select all consulting engineers to be employed by
the Commission. Once general policy is established in any field
where such authority is vested in the Commission, it shall be the
duty of the Director to perform and fulfill such policy. The Director
may, from time to time, call upon the other members of the Com-
mission individually or jointly for counsel and advice.

The Commission meeting jointly shall formulate matters of policy
relating to location, type, design, construction and maintenance of
the Secondary system of highways. It shall be the duty of the mem-
ber of the Commission from the area where the secondary road
under consideration is located to inform the other members of the
Commission of local conditions which would affect the location, de-
sign, construction and maintenance of such secondary highway. The
Commission shall recommend any overall highway improvement pro-
gram to the Executive and Legislative branches of the State. The
Commission meeting jointly should also make recommendations,
from time to time, to the Governor and the Legislature relating to
highway financing. The Commission shall determine to what extent
consulting engineers will be employed on the entire State Highway
System. The Commission shall also determine the general working
conditions and salary recommendations relating to the Commission's
employees. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to deprive the
Commission of any of its powers and duties conferred elsewhere
in this Article except as specifically set forth in this section, pro-
vided, however, when the Commission has acted pursuant to au-
thority vested in it by this Article, the Director of Highways is
hereby authorized to perform and to bring to conclusion the Com-
mission action, including the execution of contracts, agreements and
other documents duly authorized by the Commission.

7B. The State highway system shall, in addition, to the Inter-
state system of highways, be divided into primary highways and
secondary highways. The official State highway map published by
the State Roads Commission shall be used as the basis for distin-
guishing primary highways from secondary highways. The highways
shown in red on such map generally designate the highways of the
Primary system, and the highways shown in black generally designate
the Secondary system. However, the Director shall have final au-
thority to determine which highways shall be considered primary
highways and which highways shall be secondary highways,
after seeking the advice and counsel of the Commission. The
Director in determining which highway HIGHWAYS shall be desig-
nated primary and which secondary also shall consider the present
and future traffic volumes which shall use said highways as well as