Maintenance disbursements are the costs to perform routine roadway upkeep, such as filling in potholes and repaving roads. Maintenance disbursements comprise about 17.4% of total disbursements, totaling $28.06 billion in 2022, about the same as in 2020, the last time this assessment was completed.
In 2019, we measured maintenance disbursements per lane-mile. For 2018, we measured maintenance disbursements per centerline-mile, lane-mile, and vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) per lane-mile. This year, we measured disbursements per lane-mile adjusted for urbanization, the same process that we used last year. For this year’s process, we take the disbursement per lane-mile and divide it by the expected disbursement per lane-mile to calculate a ratio. The average 2022 per-mile disbursement is $14,819 (Table 8, Maintenance Disbursements, 2022, Figure 3), an increase of 1.9% compared with $14,546 in 2020. This increase continues a significant increase in spending over the last 15 years. Since 2007, total maintenance disbursements have increased 37.3%, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased about 27.4%.
In 2022, Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, and North Carolina reported the lowest overall maintenance expenditure ratios, after adjusting for urbanization. Washington, Indiana, Vermont, Oregon, and Delaware reported the highest overall expenditure ratios. Compared to 2020, the states whose ratio worsened by the highest percentage were Massachusetts, New Mexico, Ohio, North Dakota, and Oregon (166%, 86%, 73%, 54%, and 51% respectively). The states that improved the most were Alabama (82%), New Jersey (52%), Washington (32%), Nebraska (30%), and Hawaii (27%). The disbursements per state-controlled lane-mile can vary widely from year to year reflecting funding actions and project schedules.