North Dakota ranks 7th in the nation in highway performance and cost-effectiveness in the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation.

North Dakota ranks 44th in fatality rate, 19th in deficient bridges, 12th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 7th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 8th in urbanized area congestion.

On spending, North Dakota ranks 17th in total disbursements per mile and 7th in administrative disbursements per mile.

North Dakota’s best rankings are maintenance disbursements per mile (2nd), administrative disbursements per mile (7th), and urban Interstate pavement condition (7th).

North Dakota’s worst rankings are fatality rate (44th) and rural arterial pavement condition (38th).

North Dakota’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 37th largest system.

North Dakota’s Complete Results Ranking
Overall Rank in 2013: 7
Overall Rank in 2012: 6
Overall Rank in 2011: 7
Performance by Category in 2013 Ranking
Total Disbursement per Mile 17
Capital-Bridge disbursements per mile 33
Maintenance disbursements per mile 2
Administrative disbursements per mile 7
Rural Interstate Percent Poor Condition 12
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Poor Condition 38
Rural Other Principal Arterial Percent Narrow Lanes 11
Urban Interstate Percent Poor Condition 7
Urbanized Area Congestion, Annual Delay Per Auto Commuter 8
Bridges Percent Deficient 19
Fatality Rate per 100 Million Vehicle-Miles of Travel 44

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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