Some of the Best Highways in the Nation

The next time you take a drive on a Kansas highway, be impressed: Kansas ranks second in the nation in most cost-effective roadways.

The Reason Foundation looked at 11 categories, including pavement condition,

deficient bridges, spending per mile and more for its 20^th Annual Highway Report, and found that the state was able to achieve high performance and efficiency despite spending 24 percent less than the United States’ average in per-mile disbursements. The rankings are based on data reported for 2009, the most recent year with full spending statistics available.

 

Only North Dakota ranks higher than Kansas, which had been ranked third the past two years. Meanwhile, neighboring Missouri also made Reason’s top ten, landing at No. 8.

 

State Transportation Secretary, Mike King said it’s clear Kansans care about their roads.

 

“Kansans make the connection between good roads and the safety and economic well-being of the state,” he said. “They have long supported transportation improvements not only to highways, but to the entire transportation network that includes aviation, rail and transit.”

 

The state’s T-WORKS program, passed in 2010, is the third transportation program approved by Kansas legislators and governors since the late 1980s. In 2010, Kansas highways were ranked the nation’s best in a report published by Reader’s Digest.