The Reason Foundation published its 23rd Annual Highway Report on Thursday, Feb. 8.
It ranked Connecticut among the bottom 10 states in five of eleven categories used to determine the overall rankings, including urban interstate pavement conditions, total disbursements per mile and bridge deficiency.
If misery loves company, Connecticut's neighboring states did not fare much better in the study: Massachusetts ranked 44th, New York 45th and New Jersey bottomed out at 50th.
The study is based on spending and performance data that state highway agencies submitted to the federal government for 2015, the most recent year with complete data available. Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report ranks the performance of state highway systems in 11 categories, including spending per mile, pavement conditions, deficient bridges, traffic congestion, and fatality rates.
North Dakota was the top-ranked state on performance and cost-effectiveness thanks to excellent scores on urban Interstate pavement condition (3rd overall), rural Interstate pavement condition (4th), urbanized area traffic congestion (4th), and maintenance disbursements per mile (3rd). Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska and South Carolina were the other states in top five of the overall rankings.
New Jersey ranked last, 50th, in overall performance and cost-effectiveness due to having the worst urban traffic congestion and spending the most per mile — $2 million per mile of state-controlled highway, more than double what Florida, the next highest state, spent per mile. Rhode Island, Alaska, Hawaii and Connecticut were also in the bottom five of the overall rankings.
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