Maintenance Disbursements Per Mile

Maintenance disbursements are the costs to perform routine upkeep, such as filling in potholes and repaving roads.

Maintenance disbursements comprise about 16.8 percent of total disbursements, totaling $23.33 billion in 2016, about 2.3 percent more than in 2015 ($22.81 billion), the last time this assessment was completed.

Maintenance Disbursements Per State-Controlled Lane-Mile
24th Annual Highway Report

This year we measure maintenance disbursements per lane-mile. In past years, we measured them in centerline- miles. The average 2016 per-mile disbursement is $11,929 (Table 8, Maintenance Disbursements per State-Controlled Mile, 2016, Figure 3). We also calculated disbursements in centerline- miles to compare 2016 disbursements to previous years. Centerline-miles disbursements increased about 0.5 percent, from
$28,020 per mile in 2015 to $28,687 per mile in 2016. This very slight increase maintains 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, New Mexico, Alabama, North Dakota, Mississippi and South Carolina reported the lowest per-mile capital and bridge expenditures. New Jersey, Delaware, Rhode Island, New York and Oklahoma reported the highest per-mile expenditures. The states with the largest percentage shifts from 2015 to 2016 were Delaware and Oklahoma (which increased per-mile expenditures by 89 percent and 62 percent respectively) and New Mexico and Delaware (which decreased per-mile expenditures by 69 percent and 46 percent respectively). 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.

Table 8: Maintenance Disbursements per State-Controlled Lane-Mile