West Virginia's Rankings in the
29th Annual Highway Report
West Virginia’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 three-spot improvement from last year’s ranking of 33rd.
In safety and condition categories, West Virginia’s highways rank 35th in Rural Interstate Pavement Condition, 29th in Urban Interstate Pavement Condition, 36th in Rural Arterial Pavement Condition, 7th in Urban Arterial Pavement Condition, 50th in Structurally Deficient Bridges, 30th in Rural Fatality Rate, and 34th in Urban Fatality Rate. West Virginia ranks 5th out of the 50 states in traffic congestion, and its drivers spend about 12 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.
In spending and cost-effectiveness, West Virginia ranks 4th in Capital and Bridge Disbursements, which are the costs of building new roads and bridges and widening existing ones. West Virginia ranks 16th in Maintenance Disbursements, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes. West Virginia’s Administrative Disbursements, including office spending that does not make its way to roads, rank 7th nationwide.
Compared to the previous report, the categories in which the state improved the most were Rural Other Principal Arterial Pavement Condition (45th to 36th) and Urbanized Area Congestion (10th to 5th). West Virginia worsened the most in Urban Fatality Rate (13th to 34th).
When compared to its neighboring states, West Virginia’s overall highway performance is better than Maryland’s (34th) and Pennsylvania’s (36th) but worse than Virginia’s (1st), Ohio’s (5th), and Kentucky’s (15th).
Comparing its overall performance to similarly populated states, West Virginia ranks worse than New Hampshire (13th) and Idaho (26th). “In terms of improving in the road condition and performance categories, West Virginia should focus on addressing its Structurally Deficient Bridges and reducing its Other Fatality Rate,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “While the state performs strongly in Capital and Bridge Disbursements (4th), Administrative Disbursements (7th), and Urbanized Area Congestion (5th), its poor rankings in bridge condition and roadway fatalities remain 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.