27th Annual Highway Report: Urban Interstate Pavement Condition

The urban Interstates consist of major multi-lane highways in urbanized areas. The pavement condition of the urban Interstate system improved from 2019 to 2020, decreasing from 4.97% in poor condition to 4.77% (Table 12, Percent Urban Interstate Mileage in Poor Condition, 2020, Figure 7). In 2020, 911 of the 19,108 miles of urban Interstates were rated as poor, as compared to 947 poor-condition miles out of 19,069 miles in 2019, the last time this assessment was completed. 

Between 2019 and 2020, the percentage of poor urban Interstate mileage increased in 25 states and decreased in 25 states. The percent of poor mileage changed less than one percentage point in 35 of the states. Minnesota and South Carolina led the states in reducing poor-condition mileage (by 2.65 and 2.49 points, respectively) while West Virginia and Hawaii led the states in increasing poor-condition mileage (by 4.31 and 2.24 points, respectively).

The condition of urban Interstate miles also varies widely by state. In 2020, every state reported at least some poor mileage. The bottom two states (Hawaii and Louisiana) reported more than 10% of their mileage to be in poor condition. These two states, collectively, have only about 2.45% of the urban Interstate mileage in the U.S. (469 of 19,108 miles) but have over 7% of the poor mileage (64 of 911 miles). 

Urban Interstate Pavement Condition — Percent in Poor Condition