Alaska Ranks 50th in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Alaska’s highway system ranks 50th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.

According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, Alaska also ranked 50th in the nation in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.

In safety and condition categories, Alaska’s highways rank 8th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 48th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 19th in urban arterial pavement condition, 50th in rural arterial pavement condition, 35th in structurally deficient bridges, 49th in urban fatality rate, and 48th in rural fatality rate.

Alaska ranks 13th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 10 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.

In spending and cost-effectiveness, Alaska ranks 48th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Alaska ranks 40th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Alaska’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 21st nationwide.

The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were in maintenance disbursements (47th to 40th) and administrative disbursements (27th to 21st).

Alaska worsened the most in the urban arterial pavement condition category (9th to 19th).

Compared to other somewhat similar states, Alaska’s overall highway performance is worse than Wyoming’s (12th), Idaho’s (15th), Montana’s (16th), Oregon’s (35th), Washington’s (47th), and Hawaii’s (48th).

Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Alaska ranks behind both North Dakota (3rd) and Vermont (44th).

Alaska’s highway system ranks 50th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 50th in last year’s report, and was 49th in the nation five years ago in 2019.

“Alaska has unique weather and location challenges but can do better. In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Alaska should focus on improving rural Interstate pavement condition and rural arterial pavement condition. Alaska ranks in the bottom three of all the states in these two categories,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “The number of traffic deaths are among the worst in the nation, so reducing the number of traffic fatalities on urban and rural roads should also be a top priority for Alaska.”

Reason Foundation’s 28th Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities, and spending. In the performance categories, ranking first implies the state has the best or lowest fatality rate and its road pavement is in the best condition. A ranking of 50th in performance categories means the state has the worst fatality rates or pavement conditions. In simplified terms, in the cost-effectiveness categories, a rank of 50 means the state spends more money, and a first-place ranking means the state spends less money than other states in that category.

The report’s data are primarily information each state directly reported to the Federal Highway Administration for 2022. Better Roads and Bridges provides the deficient bridge data, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute provides the traffic congestion data.
Please see the complete 28th Annual Highway Report for detailed methodology and a comprehensive list of data sources.