29th Annual Highway Report: Maintenance Disbursements

Maintenance disbursements are the costs to perform routine roadway upkeep, such as filling in potholes and repaving roads. Maintenance disbursements comprise about 17.2% of total disbursements, totaling 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 the past two years. For this process, we take the disbursement per lane-mile and divide it by the expected disbursement per lane-mile to calculate a ratio. The average 2023 per-mile disbursement Disbursements by State, 2023, Figure 3), an increase of 3.8% compared with continues a decade-long trend of steady increases in spending. Since 2015, total maintenance disbursements have increased 33.1%, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased about 28%.

In 2023, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, New Mexico, and Arkansas reported the lowest overall maintenance expenditure ratios, after adjusting for urbanization. Washington, Indiana, Oklahoma, Vermont, and New York reported the highest overall expenditure ratios. Compared to 2022, the states whose ratio worsened by the highest percentage were New Jersey, Oklahoma, New York, Arizona, and Florida (103%, 44%, 34%, 31%, and 29% respectively). The states that improved the most were Massachusetts (57%), Pennsylvania (40%), Ohio (39%), Colorado (36%), and Delaware (24%). The disbursements per state-controlled lane-mile can vary widely from year to year reflecting funding actions and project schedules.

The Difference Between Maintenance and Administrative Disbursements

Some disbursement data can be counted in one of several categories. One example is benefits (vacation, health care, etc.) of state department of transportation maintenance workers. Certain states, such as Vermont, count the benefits as a maintenance disbursement since the employees are conducting routine highway maintenance. Other states, such as Delaware, count the benefits as an administrative disbursement since benefits are an administrative expense. Not surprisingly, Vermont ranks in the bottom 10 in Maintenance Disbursements, and Delaware has a bottom 10 ranking in Administrative Disbursements. As a result, it is important to look at both the individual disbursement categories and disbursements as a whole, as states have some leeway in their classification of certain expenditures.