Maintenance disbursements are the costs to perform routine upkeep, such as filling in potholes and repaving roads.
Maintenance disbursements comprise about 16.8 percent of total disbursements, totaling $23.33 billion in 2016, about 2.3 percent more than in 2015 ($22.81 billion), the last time this assessment was completed.
Maintenance Disbursements Per State-Controlled Lane-Mile
24th Annual Highway Report
This year we measure maintenance disbursements per lane-mile. In past years, we measured them in centerline- miles. The average 2016 per-mile disbursement is $11,929 (Table 8, Maintenance Disbursements per State-Controlled Mile, 2016, Figure 3). We also calculated disbursements in centerline- miles to compare 2016 disbursements to previous years. Centerline-miles disbursements increased about 0.5 percent, from
$28,020 per mile in 2015 to $28,687 per mile in 2016. This very slight increase maintains a generally steady spending trend over the last decade. Since 2007, these per-mile disbursements have increased about 15 percent, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased about 18 percent.*
In 2016, New Mexico, Alabama, North Dakota, Mississippi and South Carolina reported the lowest per-mile capital and bridge expenditures. New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, New York and Oklahoma reported the highest per-mile expenditures. The states with the largest percentage shifts from 2015 to 2016 were Delaware and Oklahoma (which increased per-mile expenditures by 89 percent and 62 percent respectively) and New Mexico and Delaware (which decreased per-mile expenditures by 69 percent and 46 percent respectively). Some of the disbursements per state-controlled mile can vary widely from year to year, reflecting funding actions and project schedules.
*Massachusetts’ latest disbursement data is from 2010.