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: South Carolina South Dakota Kansas Nebraska Maine Montana North Dakota Wyoming Ohio Mississippi New Mexico Missouri Utah Kentucky North Carolina Idaho Oklahoma Tennessee Texas Alabama Georgia Nevada Oregon Arizona West Virginia New Hampshire Minnesota Wisconsin Illinois Virginia Michigan Florida Arkansas Louisiana Colorado Indiana Delaware Maryland Pennsylvania Iowa Vermont California Washington Connecticut New York Massachusetts Rhode Island Hawaii New Jersey Alaska
