West Virginia Secretary of Transportation Paul Mattox announces that a recent study from the Reason Foundation shows improvements in West Virginia’s highway performance and cost-effectiveness, ranking it 25th in the nation. The previous report ranked West Virginia 34th.
“This rating increase illustrates our focus and the steps we have taken to improve the operation of our highway system. Considering West Virginia’s funding challenges, the fact that we rank second in total disbursements at $36,451 per mile is quite remarkable, especially when the national average is $160,997 per mile. Equally notable is the ranking of eighth in administrative disbursements per mile, which shows that we have a high percentage of our budget going back into West Virginia’s highway system. We plan to continue our efforts in these areas, to enhance our efforts to reduce fatalities, and hope to obtain an even higher rating in the future,” said Mattox.
West Virginia’s state-controlled highway mileage of nearly 35,000 miles, makes it the sixth largest system in the country.
The Reason Foundation’s Annual Highway Report ranks every state’s highway system on pavement condition, traffic congestion, deficient bridges, traffic fatality rates, spending per-mile and more. It is based on spending and performance data that state highway agencies submit themselves to the federal government.