25th Annual Highway Report: Urban Arterial Pavement Condition

Urban Other Principal Arterials (UOPA) are four- to-eight-lane roadways connecting different parts of an urban region.

Overall, about 14.1% of the UOPA system—8,985 miles out of 63,903—was reported to be in poor condition (Table 13, Percent Urban Other Principal Arterial Mileage in Poor Condition, 2018, Figure 9). This is a 0.1-point increase from 2016 where 14.0 % or 8,713 miles out of 62,363 miles were in poor condition.

Overall, urban arterial pavement condition is in much worse condition than rural arterials, rural Interstates, or urban Interstates, with the percent in poor condition at 2.05%, 1.89%, and 5.10%, respectively.

The percent UOPA mileage in poor condition varies drastically by state, from Florida with 2.2% to Wyoming at 42.67%.

Nine states reported less than 5% of UOPA miles in poor condition. On the other hand, eight states (Wyoming, Rhode Island, California, Nebraska, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington) reported more than 20% of their UOPA mileage to be in poor condition. These eight states have 24.8% of the U.S. ROPA mileage, but 46.5% of the mileage that is in poor condition.

Between 2016 and 2018 most states saw minor changes in UOPA pavement condition. Twenty-one states saw decreases/increases of poor condition mileage of one percentage point or less, with 13 states seeing decreases, and eight states seeing increases. Of the remaining states, 11 had changes of less than 2% and 13 had changes of less than 5%. However, the percentage of the UOPA system in poor condition in South Dakota, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Idaho decreased by 12.8, 9.2, 7.5, and 5.6 points, respectively, while the poor mileage in Wyoming increased by 32.3 points.

Urban Other Principal Arterial Pavement Condition — Percent in Poor Condition