Is America’s Transportation Infrastructure Crumbling?

When it comes to roads and bridges, it’s more complicated than you might think.

US News & World Report

By Christopher Wolf Ocober 1, 2021

The House of Representatives is poised to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate in August. Our recent breakdown on infrastructure spending shows the largest chunk of new spending on transportation infrastructure will be spent on roads and bridges. U.S. News measures road and bridge quality in our Best States' Transportation Rankings, using data from the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration.

Using the 2019 release of FHWA's Highway Statistics series, we find that 20% of road miles across the nation are poor in quality. Regionally, the Southwest and Northeast struggle with road maintenance, with Rhode Island (50%), Hawaii (43%) and New Jersey (37%) having the highest percentage of poor quality miles. Drivers in the Southeast and Midwest enjoy smoother roads, with Tennessee, Wyoming and North Dakota (5-6% each) being the smoothest of all.

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