Colorado is falling behind other states in road conditions, a new study has found, ranking 43rd, while neighboring Utah ranked 8th.
The study done by the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank that analyzes transportation issues, ranked the states across 13 categories including spending, pavement condition, fatalities, deficient bridges, and urban traffic congestion.
Colorado ranked 47th on the condition of rural highway pavement and 45th for urban highway pavement. It ranked 40th in urban fatality rates and 36th in traffic congestion. The study found drivers in Colorado on average spend 36 hours a year stuck in traffic. In spending and cost-effectiveness, Colorado ranked 45th in money paid for road repavement and pothole repairs. (States that spend the most rank lowest.)
Colorado’s annual spending on road conditions totaled $97.6 million, or $16.69 per resident, according to Federal Highway Administration data from 2022, the last year for which data was available for the study.
“The problem is that Colorado spends a lot of money and gets poor pavement out of it,” said Baruch Feigenbaum, the foundation’s senior managing director for transportation policy.
Colorado has moved down in the rankings, from 36th overall in 2019.
“Your taxpayers are spending more money. …. and they are more likely to hit potholes because the pavement is not in good quality,” said Feigenbaum, who led the 28th Annual Highway Report. “It suggests Colorado cannot keep its roads in good condition despite a relatively high tax rate.”
Alaska, Washington, and California ranked lower than Colorado. North Carolina ranked highest. Utah’s ranking resulted from better rural pavement, relatively low fatalities and lower traffic congestion.
Colorado Department of Transportation officials faulted the study for using old data and leaving out recent efforts to refocus state investments and improve roads.
“The state has worked to take a balanced approach to addressing a diverse set of transportation needs,” CDOT spokesman Matt Inzeo said, citing recent improvements along more than 2,000 miles of rural roads.
“We have projects underway to fix some of the worst-performing segments,” including Interstate 76 and I-70 near the Kansas border, Inzeo said.
However, he noted basic road repair projects compete with big projects such as widening I-25 in recent decades and the $800 million project to straighten I-70 at Floyd Hill west of Denver. “Effectively, our resources can either expand dozens of miles of interstate or repair thousands of miles of existing infrastructure.”