Utah's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
Utah’s highway system ranks 10th in the nation in overall cost- effectiveness and condition.
According to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation, this is a slight decline from last year’s ranking of 8th.
In safety and condition categories, Utah’s highways rank 8th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition 17th in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 10th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 9th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 6th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 22nd in Rural Fatality Rate, and 12th in Urban Fatality Rate. Utah ranks 19th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 16 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, Utah ranks 33rd in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. Utah ranks 38th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. Utah’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 20th nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Capital and Bridge Disbursements (47th to 33rd) and Other Fatality Rate (9th to 3rd). Utah worsened the most in Rural Fatality Rate (10th to 22nd).
When compared to its neighboring states, Utah’s overall highway performance is better than Wyoming’s (20th), Nevada’s (25th), Idaho’s (26th), Arizona’s (41st), and Colorado’s (42nd).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, Utah ranks worse than Connecticut (7th) but better than Iowa (35th). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, Utah should focus on reducing its Maintenance Disbursements and Other Disbursements,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “The state performs strongly in many categories including Structurally Deficient Bridges (6th), Rural Interstate Pavement Condition (8th), and Other Fatality Rate (3rd), but its weaker rankings in spending present areas for improvement.”
Reason Foundation’s 29th Annual Highway Report evaluates the cost-effectiveness and performance of state-controlled highways across 13 categories, including pavement and bridge conditions, traffic fatalities, congestion, and spending. In the performance categories, a rank of 1 indicates the best outcome—for example, the lowest fatality rate or the best pavement quality—while a rank of 50 represents the worst outcomes. In the cost-effectiveness categories, a rank of 1 means the state spends the least, while a rank of 50 indicates the highest relative spending. The report’s data are primarily based on information each state submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for 2023, supplemented by deficient bridge data from Better Roads and Bridges and congestion data from INRIX. For full methodology and data sources, see the complete 29th Annual Highway Report.