Alabama’s highways rank 20th in condition, cost-effectiveness

Alabama ranks 20th in the nation when it comes to overall highway performance and cost-effectiveness, according to the 22nd annual Highway Report released on Thursday by the Los Angeles-based libertarian think tank, Reason Foundation.

That’s up one spot from last year’s report, when Alabama ranked 21st in the nation.

The study ranks every state’s highway system on pavement condition, traffic congestion, deficient bridges, traffic fatality rates, spending per-mile among others, based  on spending and performance data that state highway agencies provided to the federal government for 2013, as well as 2014 congestion data from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

“To determine relative performance, state highway system budgets (per mile of responsibility) are compared with system performance, state by state. States with high ratings typically have better-than-average highway system conditions — low numbers of deficient bridges and smooth pavement conditions — along with relatively low per-mile expenditures on metrics such as administrative costs,” the report reads.

Other Alabama rankings in the report included:  

• Fatality rate: 36th
• Deficient bridges: 25th
• Rural Interstate pavement condition: 34th
• Urban Interstate pavement condition: 37th
• Urbanized area congestion: 9th
• Rural arterial lane-width: 6th
• Rural arterial pavement condition: 16th
• Total disbursements per mile: 27th
• Administrative disbursements per mile: 35th

Alabama’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 26th largest system.

Here’s how Alabama compares to other states:

1. South Carolina
2. South Dakota
3. Kansas
4. Nebraska
5. Maine
6. Montana
7. North Dakota
8. Wyoming
9. Ohio
10. Mississippi
11. New Mexico
12. Missouri
13. Utah
14. Kentucky
15. North Carolina
16. Idaho
17. Oklahoma
18. Tennessee
19. Texas
20. Alabama
21. Georgia
22. Nevada
23. Oregon
24. Arizona
25. West Virginia
26. New Hampshire
27. Minnesota
28. Wisconsin
29. Illinois
30. Virginia
31. Michigan
32. Florida
33. Arkansas
34. Louisiana
35. Colorado
36. Indiana
37. Delaware
38. Maryland
39. Pennsylvania
40. Iowa
41. Vermont
42. California
43. Washington
44. Connecticut
45. New York
46. Massachusetts
47. Rhode Island
48. Hawaii
49. New Jersey
50. Alaska