Colorado Ranks 43rd in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Colorado’s highway system ranks 43rd in the nation in overall cost- effectiveness and condition.

According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is consistent with the ranking of 43rd that Colorado had in the

last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.

In safety and condition categories, Colorado’s highways rank 45th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 47th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 35th in urban arterial pavement condition, 37th in rural arterial pavement condition, 19th in structurally deficient bridges, 40th in urban fatality rate, and 32nd in rural fatality rate.

Colorado ranks 36th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 36 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.

In spending and cost-effectiveness, Colorado ranks 42nd in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Colorado ranks 45th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Colorado administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 26th nationwide.

The category in which the state improved the most from the previous report was administrative disbursements (from 40th to 26th).

Colorado worsened the most in capital-bridge disbursements (28th to 42nd).

Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Colorado’s highway performance is worse than Utah’s (8th), Wyoming’s (12th), Kansas’ (22nd), Arizona’s (29th), Nebraska’s (30th), and New Mexico’s (38th).

Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Colorado ranks behind Minnesota (7th) and Wisconsin (26th).

Colorado’s highway system ranks 43rd out of the 50 states overall this year, ranked 43rd in last year’s report, and was 36th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.

“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Colorado should focus on reducing capital and bridge disbursements and maintenance disbursements as well as improving both rural and urban Interstate conditions,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28thAnnual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “The state should also focus on lowering its urban fatality rate, its lowest safety-focused category ranking.”

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.