(The Center Square) – Tennessee’s highways, bridges and roads rank fifth overall among the 50 states in cost-effectiveness and conditions, according to a report released Thursday by the Reason Foundation.
The organization’s Annual Highway Report dropped the state from its third-place ranking last year. Tennessee garnered the second spot in the category “other disbursements,” which includes funding for law enforcement, safety, bonds, and interest payments.
The Volunteer State’s next highest ranking was ninth for urban arterial pavement condition.
The organization found that 4.32% of the state’s bridges were structurally deficient, which put Tennessee in the 11th spot. The national average among the states is 6.9%, according to the report.
The lowest rankings were for urban fatalities and other fatalities at 43rd and 42nd.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Tennessee should focus on reducing administrative disbursements and urbanized area congestion. The state ranks in the bottom half in both categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, the lead author of the report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing urban and other fatality rates should also be a priority for the state, which ranks in the bottom 10 for both categories.”
While the report places the state in the top 10 for road conditions, transportation spending is being scrutinized by lawmakers. A February report on the state’s infrastructure needs, which includes transportation are increasing.
“The total cost of transportation projects increased by $4 billion (11%), largely because of new projects ($3 billion) and cost increases in existing projects ($4 billion),” the report from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations said. “The increase was largely offset by $2 billion in completed projects, $441 million in cost decreases, and $166 million in canceled projects.”
Democrats have been critical of Gov. Bill Lee and the General Assembly’s handling of infrastructure funding.
“Today, Tennessee has a $78 billion dollar backlog of infrastructure projects – roads, bridges, schools, water systems – critical investments that we cannot afford,” Rep. Johnny Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said in his prebuttal to Lee’s State of the State. “Republican fiscal mismanagement is so bad that they argued the necessity of toll lanes on state roadways just to pay for road projects.”
Lee included $1 billion in additional funds in his fiscal year 2026 budget for transportation projects.
