By Chris Wade, for The Center Square

Crumbling highways, decaying bridges, and gridlocked traffic plague the Northeast as Vermont is among the nation’s worst for infrastructure maintenance, according to a scathing new report that demands urgent action to upgrade aging transportation systems. The Reason Foundation’s latest Annual Highway Report reveals a troubling picture of deteriorating conditions that leave millions of drivers navigating substandard roads and spending countless hours stuck in traffic.

New York was ranked 45th in the nation for the condition, safety and costs of maintaining its roads, which is up four spots from the previous year, according to the report’s authors. 

The Empire State also received low rankings in safety and condition categories, with highways ranked 48th in urban interstate pavement condition, 42nd in rural interstate pavement condition and 47th in urban arterial pavement condition. The state was ranked 40th in the nation for structurally deficient bridges. 

New York also ranks 47th in traffic congestion, with the state’s drivers spending an estimated 68 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion.

Baruch Feigenbaum, the foundation’s senior managing director of transportation policy and lead author of the report, said New York should look at improving urban Interstate pavement condition, urban arterial pavement condition and urbanized area congestion. The state received poor marks in all four categories. 

“Reducing the percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the state should be a priority for New York, as it ranks in the bottom 12 in this crucial safety category as well,” he added. 

Other Northeast states also received low rankings in the group’s annual report, with some seeing sharp declines in highway and road conditions maintenance and upkeep over the previous year.

Vermont’s highway system was ranked 44th in overall cost-effectiveness and condition, a six-spot fall from the previous year and continuing a downward decline that began in 2019, according to the report. 

The state was ranked 35th in capital and bridge disbursements, the report said, and 48th in maintenance spending, such as the costs of repaving roads and filling in potholes.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts slipped 20 points — from 20th to 40th — in overall rankings, as rural Interstate conditions declined by 23 spots. The state also fared poorly in disbursements, which dropped by 19 positions and maintenance disbursements declined by 26 positions.

Maine saw some improvement over the previous year, jumping 11 spots from 32nd to 21st in overall rankings, as rural Interstate conditions improved by 24 spots. Capital disbursements also moved up by 12 spots, according to the report.

Overall, top-ranking states were North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, Virginia and Tennessee. The lowest rankings went to Louisiana, Washington, Hawaii, California and Alaska.