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Although Conn. Ranks Fifth Worst in State Road Conditions, Officials Say Its Complicated

Connecticut ranks fifth worst in road conditions, per FHWA data, yet complexities surrounding state data collection and weather challenges play a role. Rising costs for repairs and maintenance raise concerns for funding road improvements amid budget strains.

Wed June 18, 2025 - Northeast Edition
CT Insider


Connecticut's roads are considered among the nation's poorest in terms of quality, according to data collected by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) but assessing the state's true standing of road quality may be more complicated than that.

The FHWA's Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) ranks Connecticut as being the fifth worst state for road conditions, news that came as a shock to Eric Jackson, the executive director of the Connecticut Transportation Institute.

"There's a lot of different reasons that may play into it, but I wouldn't necessarily put Connecticut, as you know, one of the worst states," he told CT Insider for a June 17, 2025, news article.

For one, it was important to acknowledge the factors around the data, Jackson said. The state annually collects data on its roadways, which he said can skew the rankings.

"So sometimes, [with] a lot of these lists, you end up … either high up on the list, or it makes you look worse than you are because the state is actually collecting more data than [from] other states," he said. "So, we have more information that's available on the condition of our roadways than maybe some of the other states have."

According to data from the Bureau of Transportation, part of the federal Department of Transportation (USDOT), around 2,100 mi. of Connecticut's roads are classified as poor.

Among the roads on the list that have the worst segments in Connecticut are Cross Street and Wilton Avenue in Norwalk; State Street and Perkins Street in Meriden; and Main Street in Hartford, according to data from the HPMS.

The state's road quality assessment is based on the 2023 dataset of the HPMS. A spokesperson of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) said that the federal system's data "is not ideal for comparison, especially when just one subset of one factor is used due to differences in collection methods, network composition and size of network."

Winter Weather Always Plays Havoc With Connecticut Roads

Even so, Jackson acknowledged to CT Insider that there are a number of challenges that the state faces when it comes to its roadways, such as location and weather.

"One of the other things that obviously works against Connecticut is we are in the Northeast," he said, adding that the state must deal with rougher winter weather conditions than many places in the Midwest and South.

According to the Bureau of Transportation data, Alabama is ranked as the state with the highest percentage of roads considered "good." In fact, almost all of the states with the top rankings are located in the Midwest or the South.

Jackson added that Connecticut's winter is "very tough on the roadways" as water can get inside their cracks and freeze, causing the fissures to expand and eventually destroy the pavement.

"That's where you get a lot of the potholes that come in. So, that's kind of working against us as well," he said. "I don't see Connecticut as any worse than any of the other Northeast states that have to deal with a similar type of weather."

Rising Roadway Maintenance Costs Are Huge Challenge

Regardless of where Connecticut's true ranking actually lies, poor road quality on any level does not come without a price. Substandard road conditions are costing Americans an average of $1,400 annually in operating costs and lost time, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Whether issues with tires, suspension or alignment play a part, a survey of hundreds of car repair shops and service centers across the country found that a majority of respondents reported an increase in the number of vehicles needing repairs due to poor road conditions in their area, according to reporting by Hearst Television's National Investigative Unit.

"Driving on deteriorated roads costs Connecticut motorists $2.2 billion a year — $841 per driver — in the form of additional repairs; accelerated vehicle depreciation; and increased fuel consumption and tire wear," according to a May 2025 report by TRIP, a nonprofit national transportation research group.

But while roadway quality is costing drivers more, it also is costing additional money to maintain the roads themselves.

"Construction cost inflation, the erosion of motor fuel taxes due to inflation, improved fuel efficiency and the adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles threaten the state's ability to keep pace with growing transportation needs," according to TRIP. "The Federal Highway Administration's national highway construction cost index, which measures the rate of inflation in labor and materials cost, increased 45 percent from the beginning of 2022 through the second quarter of 2024."

Many states and municipalities are struggling with how to keep funding road maintenance and improvement while budgets are strained, Jackson told CT Insider.

"Basically, asphalt is a petroleum product, so as the price of gasoline increases, the price of the black, sticky stuff inside the pavement also increases. So, we're seeing increases in cost to be able to put the asphalt down on the roadway," he said. "Everything's getting more expensive these days and the payment and labor to put it down is the same."

That can lead to differences in road quality between states as well as between the local and the state roads, CT Insider noted. The state transportation agency maintains 3,728.86 mi. of roads, whereas the state's hundreds of towns maintain 17,470.46 mi., according to CTDOT's spokesperson.

Even though local roads typically have lower traffic volume and take longer to wear out, when public works funding is cut in a town budget, it impacts a municipality's ability to pave and improve its streets.

"The budgets that people are voting on have a direct impact on how well their roads are maintained, and how well during wintertime those roads are plowed or salted, and that … really impacts the longevity and quality of the roadways town by town," Jackson said. "And the state also faces funding challenges as well."

The road quality data largely takes its cue from the International Roughness Index (IRI), which measures the road surface conditions. IRI data does not include other roadway assessment factors, like rutting and cracking, added CTDOT's spokesperson. In addition, some of that data dates back several years, and roadway changes and improvements may have occurred since then.




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