NORMAN — A national nonprofit organization ranked Oklahoma’s roads as 37th in the nation in highway performance and cost effectiveness, according to a report released last week.
In its 19th annual highway report, the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based think tank, rated the condition and cost effectiveness of each state’s highway system. It used 2008 data for the study, which Oklahoma Department of Transportation officials said doesn’t reflect the current spending and condition of the state’s roads.
The foundation’s 11-category rating system looked at deficient bridges, fatality rates, urban traffic congestion and pavement condition, among other topics.
According to its findings, Oklahoma ranked:
· 17th in urban interstate congestion.
· 21st in total highway disbursements.
· 40th in rural interstate condition.
· 44th in rural/other principal arterial condition.
· 46th in urban interstate condition.
“Oklahoma is not rated all that well. It seems to be sliding down in our rating system over the last few years,” said David Hartgen, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and one of the study’s authors.
The state’s 37th place is its worst in recent years. In 2005, for instance, Oklahoma’s highway system ranked 24th in the nation. It ranked 34th last year.
Hartgen said researchers used state data submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for its analysis. He said a problem for Oklahoma was its lack of spending per mile of roadway. Oklahoma has more than 13,000 miles of road on its state highway system.
But ODOT officials said conditions have since improved.
“It’s a snapshot looking back at where we were,” said ODOT spokeswoman Kenna Mitchell.
In recent years, state lawmakers have increased spending for transportation projects, officials said.
Since 2008, $2 billion has been spent on the state’s highway system, said Gary Evans, ODOT’s chief engineer. That money has helped replace or rehabilitate 250 bridges.
He added that since 2006, ODOT has replaced or rehabilitated 531 bridges and has installed more than 420 miles of cable barrier in the past eight years to protect against fatalities.
The Reason Foundation’s study ranked Oklahoma 40th for fatality rates. And it ranked the state 38th in deficient or obsolete bridges, an improvement from several years ago.
“There was a time when we led the country in the wrong end of that scale,” Evans said. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
