Urban Interstate Pavement Condition — 23rd Annual Highway Report

Percent of Urban Interstates in Poor Condition
2017 Annual Highway Report

The urban Interstates consist of major multi-lane Interstates in and near urbanized areas. The pavement condition of the urban Interstate system improved from 2013 to 2015, going from 5.37% in poor condition to 5.02% poor (Table 12, Percent Urban Interstate Mileage in Poor Condition, 2015, Figure 3). In 2015, 940 of the 18,730 miles of urban Interstates were rated as poor, as compared to 945 poor-condition miles out of 17,618 miles in 2013, the last time this assessment was completed.

Between 2013 and 2015, the percentage of poor urban Interstate mileage decreased in 25 states, increased in 21 states and remained about the same in the four remaining states. More than half of the shifts were one percentage point or less. Delaware and Iowa led the states in reducing poor-condition mileage (by 8.4 and 7.7 percentage points, respectively) and Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Kansas saw increases in poor-condition urban Interstate mileage of three percentage points or more.

The condition of urban Interstate miles also varies widely by state. In 2015, every state reported at least a small percentage of its urban Interstate mileage in poor condition. In the previous 10 years, there often have been states reporting no mileage in poor condition (two in 2012, four in 2011 and nine in 2009). Five states had less than 1% poor mileage (led by Vermont with 0.17) while the bottom five states (California, New Jersey, New York, Louisiana and Hawaii) reported more than 8% poor mileage. These five states, collectively, only have about 16% of the urban Interstate mileage in the U.S. (3,004 of 18,730 miles) but have over 34% of the poor mileage (318 of 940 miles).

Percent Urban Interstate Mileage in Poor Condition