Nebraska's Rankings in the
28th Annual Highway Report
Nebraska’s highway system ranks 30th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a four-spot fall from Nebraska’s ranking of 26th overall in the last evaluation of the condition, safety, and costs of roads and bridges in all 50 states.
In safety and condition categories, Nebraska’s highways rank 25th in urban Interstate pavement condition, 16th in rural Interstate pavement condition, 49th in urban arterial pavement condition, 35th in rural arterial pavement condition, 36th in structurally deficient bridges, 31st in urban fatality rate, and 20th in rural fatality rate.
Nebraska ranks 15th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend 12 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Nebraska ranks 28th in capital and bridge disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Nebraska ranks 32nd in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Nebraska’s administrative disbursements, including office spending that doesn’t make its way to roads, ranks 29th nationwide.
The categories in which the state improved the most from the previous report were maintenance disbursements (from 41st to 32nd) and other fatality rate (from 19th to 12th).
Nebraska worsened the most in the administrative disbursements (from 6th to 29th).
Compared to neighboring and nearby states, Nebraska’s overall highway performance is better than Iowa’s (31st) and Colorado’s (43rd) but worse than Missouri’s (9th), Wyoming’s (12th), Kansas’ (22nd), and South Dakota’s (25th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Nebraska ranks ahead of New Mexico (38th) but behind Idaho (15th).
Nebraska’s highway system ranks 30th out of 50 states overall this year, ranked 26th in last year’s report, and was 15th in the nation five years ago, in 2019.
“In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Nebraska should focus on improving urban arterial pavement condition, where the state ranks second worse nationwide,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 28th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Reducing the percentage of structurally deficient bridges should also be a priority for Nebraska, as the state ranks in the bottom 15 in this important safety category.”
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.