29th Annual Highway Report: Rural Other Principal Arterial Pavement Condition

Rural other principal arterials (ROPA) are two- to four-lane highways connecting different cities or regions. The condition of major rural arterials worsened slightly from 2022 to 2023, by about 0.09 percentage points. Overall, about 1.09% of the ROPA system—980 miles out of 90,323—was reported to be in poor condition (Table 13, Percent Rural Other Principal Arterial Mileage in Poor Condition, 2023, Figure 8). This compares with about 1.00% (906 of 90,315 miles) in 2022, the last time this assessment was completed. This bucks a steady long-term trend of improvement in ROPA pavement quality. (It should be noted that as cities grow, the urbanized area around them grows as well. As this occurs, highways near cities are often reclassified from rural to urban. If these highways were in good condition already, their reclassification has the effect of increasing the percentage of rural roads in poor condition.)

The percentage of ROPA increased in 30 states, decreased in 15 states and remained the same in five states. Twenty-eight states reported 1% or less of their ROPA mileage was in poor condition. On the other hand, Alaska reported 12% of its ROPA mileage was in poor condition. Alaska has only 0.57% of the U.S. ROPA mileage, but 6.1% of the mileage that is in poor condition.

In 2023, Wyoming, Nevada, Georgia, Indiana, and Alabama reported the lowest percentage of poor ROPA mileage. Alaska, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Illinois reported the highest. Compared to 2022, the states whose percentage increased the most were respectively.). The states that improved the most were Delaware (61%), Massachusetts (60%), Vermont (50%), Wyoming (50%), and Arkansas (40%).