MODERN STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM.

To promote public safety, facilitate the movement of traffic, preserve the public's financial investment in highways, promote the national defense, and accomplish the purposes of this chapter, the commission may:

(1) lay out, construct, maintain, and operate a modern state highway system, with emphasis on the construction of controlled access highways;

(2) plan for future highways; and

(3) convert where necessary an existing street, road, or highway into a controlled access highway in accordance with modern standards of speed and safety.