Delaware ranks 37th in the nation in highway performance and cost-effectiveness in the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation.

Delaware ranks 27th in fatality rate, 22nd in deficient bridges, 45th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 34th in urbanized area congestion.

On spending, Delaware ranks 38th in total disbursements per mile and 30th in administrative disbursements per mile.

Delaware’s best rankings are rural arterial pavement condition (4th), rural arterial lane-width (15th), and capital-bridge disbursements per mile (20th).

Delaware’s worst rankings are maintenance disbursements per mile (49th) and urban Interstate pavement condition (45th).

Delaware’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 41st largest system.

Delaware’s Complete Results Ranking
Overall Rank in 2013: 37
Overall Rank in 2012: 37
Overall Rank in 2011: 35
Performance by Category in 2013 Ranking
Total Disbursement per Mile 38
Capital-Bridge Disbursements per Mile 20
Maintenance Disbursements per Mile 49
Administrative Disbursements per Mile 30
Rural Interstate Percent Poor Condition NA*
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Poor Condition 4
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Narrow Lanes 15
Urban Interstate Percent Poor Condition 45
Urbanized Area Congestion, Annual Delay Per Auto Commuter 34
Bridges Percent Deficient 22
Fatality Rate per 100 Million Vehicle-Miles of Travel 27

*Delaware has no rural Interstate mileage for 2013

The Annual Highway Report is based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government for 2013. For more details on the calculation of each of the 11 performance measures used in the report, as well as the overall performance measure, please refer to the appendix in the main report. The report’s dataset includes Interstate, federal and state roads but not county or local roads. All rankings are based on performance measures that are ratios rather than absolute values: the financial measures are disbursements per mile, the fatality rate is fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles of travel, the urban congestion measure is the annual delay per auto commuter, and the others are percentages. For example, the state ranking 1st in deficient bridges has the smallest percentage of deficient bridges, not the smallest number of deficient bridges.

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