With highway funding at record levels, a study reveals that pavements on many of the nation’s roads and bridges are still in bad shape. What’s up? The Road Information Program (TRIP), a non-profit transportation research group in Washington, D.C., primarily supported by the highway industry, says that reliable data indicates that “approximately three out of 10 miles of major highways and streets nationally have significant deterioration and are in need of resurfacing or reconstruction.”
TRIP says “11 percent of the nation’s major roads are in poor condition and 21 percent are in mediocre condition; thus, 32 percent of the mileage on the nation’s major roads need significant improvement.”
TRIP also named the states with the highest percentage of major road mileage in poor or mediocre condition, drawing sharp rebuttals from many of those named. California was ranked the worst, followed by Massachusetts, Missouri, Connecticut and Louisiana, in that order.
It also ranked the states whose roads are in the best condition. These are, beginning with the best: Georgia, Alabama, Wyoming, Florida and Kansas. (See A Question of Priority)
Basis for Ranking
“Our ranking is based on analyzing data on the condition of the nation’s approximately 424,000 mi. of arterial streets and highways,” Frank Moretti, TRIP’s director of research, told Construction Equipment Guide (CEG). “We receive this information from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) based on the reports which it receives each year from state departments of transportation.”
The states rate roads numerically based on the International Roughness Index (IRI) standard.
Arterial streets and highways, the nation’s most important roads carrying the most traffic, include the interstate system, major highways and key urban and rural routes
In its analysis, TRIP classified pavements, based on its IRI ranges, as being in poor, mediocre, fair or good condition. “We developed this to make our report more intelligible to people,” said Paul Holland, TRIP’s assistant director of research and communications.
“Roads rated poor are badly cracked or broken,” the TRIP report said. “In some cases, poor roads can be resurfaced, but often are too deteriorated and must be reconstructed.
Roads rated in mediocre condition may show defects, such as rutting and extensive patching and have riding qualities that are noticeably inferior to those of new pavements and may need more than resurfacing to return them to good condition.”
The TRIP report was released in December, 2001, based on road data reported in 2000.
TRIP had initially focused on California, where infrastructure funding appeared to lag the most. After presenting findings on its Web site, it was besieged by press calls, and then publicized conditions for all states.
“A desirable goal for state and local organizations that are responsible for road maintenance is to keep 75 percent of their major roads in good condition,” said the report. “But less than half — 46 percent — of the nation’s major road mileage is in good condition. The final 22 percent of the nation’s roads are rated in fair condition.”
States React
Some states near the bottom of the list greeted TRIP’s report with groans.
Susan Sharpley, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Transportation in Hartford, CT, commented, “The group which supports that TRIP activity is made up of contractors, people who obviously have a vested interest in supporting more work for themselves. Also, they lump both state and local roads together in the report. We feel that is sort of unfair. Then the media picks up on it. They call us and we have to justify our program, which we feel is pretty extensive. We spend a lot of money every year fixing up our road system.”
John Wallace, another spokesperson for ConnDOT, added, “TRIP is a group that lobbies Congress and state legislatures to obtain funding for road maintenance. We think these folks are friends and we believe they help us get additional funds. However, all reports are arbitrary. The part we don’t think is particularly fair is taking an Oak Street in Podunk and putting that on the same scale as Interstate 91 in the Hartford area. Obviously, the interstate will receive more funding for maintenance than a local road.”
Douglas Cope, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Highway Department in Boston, MA, asked:
“What’s mediocre? What does that mean? That’s kind of a curious way to describe a roadway. Our basic message is that our pavement quality has been improving consistently over the years and we are spending record amounts of money on our statewide road and bridge improvement program.”
TRIP’s Holland said, however, that “mediocre” roads were simply a certain IRI range requiring less reconstruction than poor roads. Regarding the fairness criticism, he said the analysis did not consider secondary roads; only major “sealed” roads requiring maintenance. An unpaved rural road, for instance, would not be considered.
The states are eager to explain such mitigating factors as rapidly increasing traffic and the effect of cold weather plus extensive current construction aided by record funding from Congress. CEG interviewed officials of the bottom five states in the rankings to show this wider picture.
California
“California leads the nation in the percentage of its roads in poor and mediocre condition, with nearly three-quarters of its major roads in need of repair,” the report said, stating that 37 percent of this state’s major roads were in poor condition and 35 percent were in mediocre condition.
“It’s pretty clear that California has underinvested [in highways] for a generation,” Holland told CEG. “They are kind of reaping the results of this right now.”
An official for the California DOT, however, said the report was “very misleading.”
The official, who did not wish to be identified, said California “has spent over $800 million in the last three years on road repair, just on repaving projects. We’ve been in a concerted effort to reduce the number of bad-riding lane-miles and we’ve repaired more than 5,000 lane-mi. a year.
“I don’t mean to be too brutal on this report, but our goal is how do you move people in congested areas like interchanges in big cities,” he said.
“We may spend $50 million on a congested interchange which doesn’t give us any more mileage. Comparing this with a state like North Dakota which focuses on building a lot of dual lanes on a per-capita basis is like comparing apples with oranges.”
Admitting that California’s infrastructure had suffered from more than a decade of “a gradual erosion funding after the heyday of freeway building in the 1960s and early 1970s‚” he said infrastructure had not been a top priority under previous administrations, but has been a very high priority since 1999 under Gov. Gray Davis, with traffic congestion a major focus.
“They put together what is probably the single largest appropriation for transportation improvements in the history of the state — $5.3 billion to relieve congestion over several years. This will fund more than 140 projects in addition to the State Transportation Improvement Program, which is more than $8 billion over five years.
“We also have the State Highway Operation and Protection Program which is primarily a major maintenance and rehabilitation effort to the tune of about $4 billion over a four-year period. Our DOT budget this year is $10 billion, the major part relating to highways and bridges. We have about $6 billion worth of construction under way and will let about $2 billion in new construction contracts this year,” the official said.
To understand California’s situation more completely, he said the following factors also should be considered: Traffic in the state has been increasing between 1 percent and 2 percent every year since 1990, totaling more than 150-billion vehicle mi. per year; at the same time, the system is aging.
“The system was primarily designed and built 40 or 30 years ago,” he said. “So it’s middle-aged. When you’re near 50, you creak a lot more.”
California, like each state, also has its own unique conditions affecting highway conditions.
“Although a lot of people see us as a golden state of sunshine, which we are in many portions, we also have rather unique weather conditions here,” the source said. “We’ve got a north coast area which is very wet. We have mountain highways in the Sierra and Southern Cascade Region with heavy snows, with freeze-thaw situations which take a tremendous beating. And ultimately, you have a system which is carrying more vehicles than any other system in the United States and probably anywhere in the world.”
California funds its highway projects partly through an 18-cents-per-gallon state tax and an 18-cents-per-gallon federal tax on fuel.
Massachusetts
TRIP said Massachusetts has the second highest percentage of major road mileage with pavements in poor (25 percent) or mediocre (39 percent) condition. Douglas Cope, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Highway Department in Boston, MA, countered:
“I think 95 percent of the roadways in our state highway system are rated excellent to fair in terms of pavement quality under guidelines set by the Federal Highway Administration. TRIP’s data is just curious. We’re doing more than ever before. Our pavement quality is better than ever before and has improved considerably over the past year. We are continuing to resurface and reconstruct our roadways to achieve our goal of making them the best in the nation.
“Massachusetts Highway Commissioner Matthew Amorello closed the books on fiscal year 2001 spending more than $447 million on construction alone; that’s shovels in the ground, concrete being poured, asphalt being laid and is the most spent on construction in the 105-year history of the Massachusetts Highway Department. That is an integral part of an overall record $700 million a year statewide road and bridge program, including administration, planning, design and other segments.
“All of this is completely separate from the Central Artery [“Big Dig”] project. We also are on target to spend more than $400 million on construction this state fiscal year [July 1 - June 30]. We have more road and bridge projects than ever before: 478 throughout the state. Of course, like everyone else, we face some additional challenges because of Sept. 11. Tax revenues are lower but that’s not going to affect our road and bridge improvement program.”
Doesn’t increasing traffic and bad weather, enter the equation?
“Sure, traffic has been increasing, reflecting our good economy,” Cope replied. “We estimate that at least 100,000 people commute to Boston every day by car. We are a northeastern state; we do have that thing called winter, which contributes to the weathering of our roads and bridges. Massachusetts also does have an older infrastructure compared with western or southern states with newer infrastructures and without our weather extremes.
“When you talk about pavement quality, we have had a number of major resurfacing and reconstruction projects on our interstates and other major state highways.
“During 2001, we completed reconstruction of Route 495 in Haverill and resurfaced I-95 (Route 128) in the Burlington/Lexington/Wakefield area. We’ve been resurfacing Route 195 through New Bedford.
“During 2002, one of our major projects will be redoing a section of Route 495 down through Franklin. We will rubblize a 40-year-old concrete section of highway and replace it with asphalt which will be rubblized. We don’t have much in the way of concrete roadways here. This spring, we’ll also complete resurfacing of Route 3 from Duxbury to Hingham, which is a $5.2-million job.”
Massachusetts also is building some new stretches of highways, notably relocating about 7 mi. of Route 44 in the Plymouth-Carver area. This $50-million four-lane project, which includes several bridges, will connect with Route 3 in Plymouth.
The Massachusetts highway system includes approximately 2,900 centerline mi. (about 12,500 lane-mi.) of roadway.
“I don’t know what they’re characterizing as poor roads,” Cope said. “I don’t know what they mean, or where those roads are.”
Missouri Funding Crisis
The TRIP analysis says Missouri has the third highest percentage of major road mileage in poor (21 percent) or mediocre (38 percent) condition.
The Missouri DOT in Jefferson City, MO, gave a non-confrontational response, saying the state’s road problems are due to lack of adequate funding.
“The TRIP report really reinforces what we have been saying for quite a while: Our road system is wearing out and, compared with other states, we don’t have the revenue we need,” Jeff Briggs, a DOT spokesperson, told CEG.
“Our highway system is the the seventh largest in the U.S., with over 32,000 miles of roads, but we rank 46th in revenue per mile.”
The largest single source of transportation funding in Missouri is a fuel tax. At 17 cents per gallon, this is ranked 41st in the nation. Missouri doesn’t have either the amount or sources of additional revenue that other states have; for instance, it doesn’t charge an additional sales tax on fuel as many other states do. Meanwhile, its road traffic is growing 13 percent a year (much faster than driving lanes) and has doubled in the past 20 years.
“The state legislature did authorize bonds for roadbuilding several years ago. This helped last year and this year,” Briggs said. “However, if we don’t receive any new money, we will have to put all of our funding into taking care of existing roads. We have already been devoting a larger percentage of revenue into preservation rather than expansion.”
Interstate 70, which traverses the middle of the state, connecting St. Louis and Kansas City, is a good example of Missouri’s plight. The busiest highway in the state, it’s “way past its life expectancy and it’s wearing out,” Briggs said. “Everyone agrees that expanding it from four to six lanes is needed; the problem is that this would cost over $3 billion.
“We also need to widen many other roads and we have 55 major river bridges, the largest total in the nation, many of which are very, very old and need to be replaced.
“To get everything up to snuff would take an additional $1 billion a year to meet the needs of our transportation system, and bring it up to accepted standards,” Briggs added. “It has gotten to the point where we’re hearing from the public that roads need to be fixed and the legislature is considering about a half dozen proposals like raising the fuel tax, increasing the state income tax and licensing fees, and possibly authorizing toll roads.”
Connecticut
The TRIP analysis said Connecticut had the fourth highest percentage of major road mileage in poor (17 percent) or mediocre (37 percent) condition.
“We’re in the situation where we’re not building any new roads; what we are doing and what we plan to do in the foreseeable future is maintain our present roads and bridges,” said spokesperson Sharpley. “We could certainly use more money for those projects. Every year, we resurface between 300 and 400 mi. of our system.”
Connecticut includes 5,500 lane mi. of state highway.
In this as other states, part of the problem is increasing traffic.
“When our roadways were built in the 50s and 60s, traffic at a major interchange was about 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles a day; now it’s 150,000 a day at the I-91/95 Interchange in New Haven, triple what it was built for,” said John Wallace, also a spokesperson for the DOT.
Wallace said Connecticut’s highway funding is currently approximately $500 million per year. Approximately $400 million of this comes from federal funding; and $100 million from state and matching funds.
A major funding source is a 31-cents-per-gallon sales tax on gas.
“We’re working on our roadways all the time; we’re trying our best to keep up with progress,” Wallace said. “Major projects include replacing the Q Bridge [the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge], which is a large $1-billion 10-year to12-year project, reconstructing the New Haven-Harbour Crossing Bridge at I-95/91, completing replacement of I-95 infrastructure in Bridgeport, reconstruction of portions of the Merritt Parkway, and replacing the Sikorski Bridge on the Merritt Parkway over the Housatonic River at Stratford/Milford.”
Louisiana
The data indicates that Louisiana has the fifth worst pavement conditions, with 27 percent of its arterials rated in poor condition and 27 percent in mediocre condition.
“The thing which makes maintenance so expensive here is that a lot of the state has low, swampy conditions,” said Alex Broussard, a public information officer for the Louisiana DOT in Baton Rouge, LA. “We don’t have bedrock in most of the state, but marshy conditions which cause a lot of wear and tear. For instance, we had to drive some concrete pylons a quarter mile deep for the 24 mi. of elevated bridge connecting Baton Rouge and Lafayette.”
Broussard said Louisiana therefore puts a special focus on maintenance: “Maintenance is up to par. We have a transportation research center which studies which type of pavement is best for each area.”
But, like many other states, Louisiana says it needs more money to do the job. A major source of funding, besides bond issues, is a fuel tax which is only four cents per gallon.
“The intentions are there; the resources aren’t,” Broussard commented.
Not only that, but Louisiana is helping fund such major new projects as upgrading approximately 76 mi. of I-49, which connects Lafayette with the West Bank section of New Orleans, to federal interstate standards. Large highway and bridge jobs are under a special Transportation Infrastructure Management program.
Further information on the TRIP report is available through www.tripnet.org or by calling 202/466-6706. CEG
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