(The Center Square) – Washington state has some of the worst-performing, least cost-effective roads and bridges in the nation, according to Reason Foundation’s “28th Annual Highway Report,” released Thursday.
The Los Angeles-based libertarian think tank gave the Evergreen State an overall ranking of 47 out of 50 states.
The report measured the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories in all 50 states, including urban and rural pavement conditions, deficient bridges, traffic fatalities, spending per mile and administrative costs per mile of highway.
The report’s data was primarily derived from information each state directly reported to the Federal Highway Administration for 2022, the most recent year with complete data available.
In safety and condition categories, Washington’s highways rank 27th in urban interstate pavement condition, 44th in rural interstate pavement condition, 43rd in urban arterial pavement condition, 25th in rural arterial pavement condition, 17th in structurally deficient bridges, 27th in urban fatality rate and 18th in rural fatality rate.
The report ranks Washington at No. 31 in terms of traffic congestion; its drivers spend 28 hours a year stuck in roadway snarl-ups.
Washington ranks 50th – dead last – when it comes to spending and cost-effectiveness. That translates into Washington spending the most of any state in building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Washington also came in at No. 50 in terms of maintenance – that is, the costs of repaving roads and filling potholes.
The state fared only slightly better – No. 47 – when it came to administrative disbursements, including office spending that didn’t go toward roads.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, the large amount of money the state is spending needs to translate to producing better results for drivers and taxpayers – smoother pavement, less congestion and lower fatality rates,” Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation, said in the section detailing Washington’s various rankings.
Former Washington State Transportation Secretary Roger Millar said as much in his final update to the Washington State Transportation Commission in January. He noted that the current gap between what the state spends and what it would need to spend to keep its transportation system in good repair stands at $1.44 billion per year, with $980 million of that needed for the existing state highway system.
The state’s bridges are in a similar situation. The Washington State Department of Transportation is responsible for more than 3,400 spans in the state. During a briefing last month to the WSTC, WSDOT engineer Evan Grimm noted nearly 9% of bridges are considered to be in poor condition, more than 55% are in fair condition and just over 36% are in good condition.
The average age of a bridge in Washington is 51, and the oldest bridge was built in 1915. According to Grimm, replacing all 313 bridges 80 years old or older would cost about $8.3 billion.
The Center Square emailed WSDOT for comment on the study’s findings regarding Washington, asking if the state is focused on spending on new transportation projects at the expense of maintenance and preservation efforts.
“Highway maintenance and preservation remains a key agency priority and is identified as a critical unfunded need,” WSDOT Acting Communications Director Stefanie Randolph emailed The Center Square. “Under the state budget process, WSDOT does not set its own budget. Our agency receives separate funding buckets for Operations & Maintenance and for Preservation as well as for new construction projects. Legally, the agency cannot shift funds from one item to another. We continue to partner with the Governor’s Office and the Legislature on ways to change the trajectory of our system.”
She went to explain how WSDOT tries to keep pace with preservation efforts in spite of funding challenges.
“Preservation, operations & maintenance take care of the transportation system we already have,” Randolph noted. “Insufficient funding threatens the safety and reliability of our system as well as past investments by taxpayers. When preservation funding falls short of actual needs, we are forced to manage decline rather than improve existing infrastructure. This reactive approach increases demands on highway maintenance crews and is more costly to fix, as crews must respond to system failures instead of proactively addressing issues before they arise. To stretch resources, we have taken steps to reduce costs, cut material expenses, suspend overtime and extend the lifespan of our transportation assets where possible.”
Washington’s No. 47 overall ranking is a one-spot fall from last year’s 46th-place finish.
