Policy Study

Alaska Ranks 49th in the Nation in Highway Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Alaska’s best rankings are urbanized area congestion, urban Interstate pavement condition, and urban arterial pavement condition.

Alaska’s highway system ranks 49th in the nation in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the Annual Highway Report by Reason Foundation. This is the same as the previous report, where Alaska ranked 49th overall.

In safety and performance categories, Alaska ranks 44th in overall fatality rate, 38th in structurally deficient bridges, 5th in traffic congestion, 17th in urban Interstate pavement condition, and 48th in rural Interstate pavement condition.

On spending, Alaska ranks 48th in total spending per mile and 49th in capital and bridge costs per mile.

“To improve in the rankings, Alaska needs to improve its rural pavement condition and reduce its fatality rate. Alaska ranks in the bottom three states for rural Interstate and rural arterial pavement condition and in the bottom six states for each fatality ranking. Compared to nearby states, the report finds Alaska’s overall highway performance is worse than Idaho (ranks 5th), Oregon (ranks 28th), and Washington (ranks 45th),” said Baruch Feigenbaum, lead author of the Annual Highway Report and senior managing director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “Alaska is doing worse than comparable states like Montana (ranks 10th) and Hawaii (ranks 42nd).”

Alaska’s best rankings are in traffic congestion (5th) and urban Interstate pavement condition (17th).

Alaska’s worst rankings are rural arterial pavement condition (50th), capital and bridge spending per mile (49th), and urban fatality rate (49th).

Alaska’s state-controlled highway mileage makes it the 37th largest highway system in the country.

Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement condition, traffic congestion, structurally deficient bridges, traffic fatalities, and spending (capital, maintenance, administrative, overall) per mile.

Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report measures the condition and cost-effectiveness of state-controlled highways in 13 categories, including pavement condition, traffic congestion, structurally deficient bridges, traffic fatalities, and spending (capital, maintenance, administrative, overall) per mile.

The Annual Highway Report is based on spending and performance data submitted by state highway agencies to the federal government for 2018 as well as urban congestion data from INRIX and bridge condition data from the Better Roads inventory for 2019.