Capital and bridge disbursements are the costs to build new, and widen existing, highways and bridges. Capital and bridge disbursements for state-owned roads equal 51.6 percent of total disbursements, totaling $71.75 billion in 2016, about 4.4 percent less than was spent in 2015 ($74.90 billion), the last time this assessment was completed.
Capital and Bridge Disbursements Per State-Controlled Lane-Mile
24th Annual Highway Report
This year, we measure capital and bridge disbursements per lane-mile. In past years, we measured them in centerline-miles. The average 2016 per-mile disbursement is $36,681 (Table 7, Capital and Bridge Disbursements Per State-Controlled Mile, 2016, Figure 2). We also calculated disbursements in centerline- miles to compare 2016 disbursements to previous years. Centerline-mile disbursements decreased about 4.1 percent, from $91,992 per mile in 2015 to $88,212 per mile in 2016. This significant decrease bucks a generally steady spending trend over the last decade. Since 2007, these per-mile disbursements have increased about 15 percent, while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased about 18 percent.*
In 2016, South Carolina, Missouri, West Virginia, New Mexico and South Dakota reported the lowest per-mile capital and bridge expenditures. New Jersey, Florida, New York, Connecticut and Illinois reported the highest per-mile expenditures. The states with the largest percentage shifts from 2015 to 2016 were Delaware and Nevada (which increased per-mile expenditures by more than 35 percent) and Texas and Hawaii (which decreased per-mile expenditures by more than 39 percent). Some of the disbursements per state-controlled mile can vary widely from year to year—reflecting funding actions and project schedules.
*Massachusetts’ latest disbursement data is from 2010.
<strong><a class=”pdf-icon” href=”https://reason.org/wp-content/uploads/24th-annual-highway-report-2019.pdf”>Full Study: 24th Annual Highway Report</a></strong>
<strong><a class=”pdf-icon” href=”https://reason.org/wp-content/uploads/24th-annual-highway-report-2019-state-by-state-summaries.pdf”>24th Annual Highway Report’s State-by-State Summaries</a></strong>