Hawai'i road upkeep rated nation's worst
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Hawai'i had the worst-maintained roads in the nation last year, according to a new report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, an interest group that opposes urban sprawl.
States with the highest percentage of roads in poor, mediocre or fair condition:
The report, based on data provided by the state to the Federal Highway Administration, found 89.6 percent of major roads in Hawai'i rated in fair, mediocre or poor condition. Missouri, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California and Oregon also had more than 80 percent of major roads in need of repair.
Worst roads in the country
Glenn Yasui, administrator for the Hawai'i Department of Transportation's Highways Division, called the conclusion misleading. "That is too high," he said. "I think most of our highways are in really good condition."
The report was prepared to demonstrate that many states, including Hawai'i, use federal transportation money on new highway construction rather than to repair and maintain existing roads. Congress expects to review federal transportation policy this year, and the group is one of many in the debate.
Its report compares road conditions between 1994 and 2001 and estimates how much federal money was devoted annually to road repair.
The group says Hawai'i did not provide enough data in 1994 to make an assessment, so analysts were unable to track conclusively whether road conditions improved over that period.
"You can't say whether Hawai'i has gotten worse or better, but you can say that Hawai'i was the worst of the states that reported last year," said Michelle Ernst, an analyst with the group.
The report covered interstates, freeways and expressways, as well as principal and minor arterial roads. It combined fair, mediocre and poor ratings from the International Roughness Index — a government measure of quality — into a single standard to determine the percentage of roads not in good condition.
A "fair" rating, for instance, means a road will likely need repair in the near future, depending on use. "Mediocre" means a road needs repair in the near future to preserve usability, while "poor" means it needs immediate repair.
According to the report, 65.7 percent of Hawai'i roads were rated "fair," 18.5 percent were rated "mediocre" and 5.4 percent were rated "poor." By contrast, 10.3 percent were rated "good," and no roads were rated "very good." Eleven percent of roads were not included because of a lack of data.
Yasui said Hawai'i spends about $78 million in state and federal money each year on road repair and maintenance. The state receives between $100 million and $150 million a year in federal transportation money. The report claimed that in the last decade, Hawai'i spent about a quarter of its road money on road repair, a finding Yasui generally confirmed.
"We tend to use federal dollars on major capital improvement programs," he said.
The report's main conclusion is that $300 billion in federal transportation money has improved the nation's roads and bridges substantially in the last decade, though states have used federal money also for new road construction.
Matthew Jeanneret, a spokesman for the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, said the report paints an incomplete picture. "Let's face it, they're not interested in addressing the nation's transportation needs," he said.
"We believe in letting the local decision-makers determine how their funds are best spent."
Ledyard King of Gannett News Service contributed to this report.
