This ranking measures the physical condition of what states have actually built and maintained, using three named sources. First, the Federal Highway Administration's National Bridge Inventory, the federal inspection database behind the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) 2025 Bridge Report, which classifies bridges as good, fair, or poor (structurally deficient); nationally, 6.7 percent of bridges rated poor as of the June 2025 data release. Second, state-level Infrastructure Report Cards issued by state sections of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which grade categories from aviation to wastewater; only three states, Utah, Georgia, and Wisconsin, currently hold a C+, the highest overall grade ASCE has ever assigned a state. Third, the Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report (28th and 29th editions), which ranks all 50 state highway systems on pavement condition, deficient bridges, congestion, fatalities, and cost-effectiveness.
The composite score is ordinal and analytical. ASCE grades and Reason rankings are third-party ratings and are attributed by name wherever they drive a position. Bridge percentages are federal inspection data and are quoted with their year. Positions 11 through 15 and 41 through 44 are the thinnest part of the ordering, where states cluster tightly; the top and bottom five are not close calls.
What is deliberately ignored: how much a state spends, what it has announced, and which party governs it. A press release does not carry traffic. A bridge rating does.
", "entries": [ { "rank": 1, "name": "Utah", "detail": "Mountain West", "score": "100.0", "blurb": "Holds a C+ from ASCE's 2025 state report card, tied for the highest overall grade ever given a state, with roads graded B+ and bridges B (ASCE Utah Section, 2025)." }, { "rank": 2, "name": "Georgia", "detail": "Southeast", "score": "98.4", "blurb": "One of only three states with an ASCE C+ overall grade, and second in the nation in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report for performance and cost-effectiveness (ASCE; Reason Foundation, 29th Annual Highway Report)." }, { "rank": 3, "name": "Virginia", "detail": "South Atlantic", "score": "97.1", "blurb": "First overall in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report, achieving top-20 pavement condition in three of four categories while spending near the bottom on capital and administrative disbursements (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 4, "name": "Wisconsin", "detail": "Midwest", "score": "95.8", "blurb": "The third member of the C+ club, the highest overall ASCE state grade currently held (ASCE, 2025)." }, { "rank": 5, "name": "South Carolina", "detail": "Southeast", "score": "94.6", "blurb": "Third in the nation in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report for overall highway performance and cost-effectiveness (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 6, "name": "North Carolina", "detail": "Southeast", "score": "93.7", "blurb": "Fourth overall in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 7, "name": "Ohio", "detail": "Midwest", "score": "92.5", "blurb": "Fifth overall in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report, the top performance among heavy-traffic northern states (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 8, "name": "Tennessee", "detail": "South", "score": "91.4", "blurb": "Consistently posts one of the lowest structurally deficient bridge shares in the country in the annual ARTBA analyses of federal inspection data (ARTBA Bridge Report)." }, { "rank": 9, "name": "Florida", "detail": "Southeast", "score": "90.6", "blurb": "Among the three states with the best rural interstate pavement quality in the Reason Foundation's data, with a poor-bridge share far below the national 6.7 percent (Reason Foundation; FHWA NBI, 2025)." }, { "rank": 10, "name": "Arizona", "detail": "Southwest", "score": "89.9", "blurb": "Perennially among the lowest shares of structurally deficient bridges of any state in ARTBA's tabulation of FHWA data (ARTBA Bridge Report, 2025)." }, { "rank": 11, "name": "Texas", "detail": "South", "score": "89.0", "blurb": "Maintains the nation's largest highway and bridge system while keeping one of the lowest poor-bridge percentages of any state (FHWA National Bridge Inventory; ARTBA)." }, { "rank": 12, "name": "Nevada", "detail": "Mountain West", "score": "88.2", "blurb": "Among the lowest structurally deficient bridge shares in the nation in ARTBA's annual reports (ARTBA Bridge Report)." }, { "rank": 13, "name": "Kentucky", "detail": "South", "score": "87.1", "blurb": "Ranks well in the Reason Foundation's cost-effectiveness measures, delivering average-or-better conditions on below-average budgets (Reason Foundation, Annual Highway Report)." }, { "rank": 14, "name": "Delaware", "detail": "South Atlantic", "score": "86.3", "blurb": "A compact system with a poor-bridge share below the national 6.7 percent rate (FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2025)." }, { "rank": 15, "name": "Kansas", "detail": "Midwest", "score": "85.6", "blurb": "Manages one of the largest bridge inventories in the country, a structural burden most states do not carry, while staying out of the worst tier on condition (FHWA National Bridge Inventory)." }, { "rank": 41, "name": "New Jersey", "detail": "Northeast", "score": "58.9", "blurb": "Commuters lose more than 60 hours a year to traffic congestion, the worst tier in the nation alongside Massachusetts and New York (Reason Foundation, 29th Annual Highway Report)." }, { "rank": 42, "name": "South Dakota", "detail": "Midwest", "score": "57.8", "blurb": "16.9 percent of its bridges rated structurally deficient in the Reason Foundation's tabulation of 2021 federal data, among the worst rates in the nation (Reason Foundation, 28th Annual Highway Report)." }, { "rank": 43, "name": "Washington", "detail": "Pacific Northwest", "score": "56.9", "blurb": "Among the five worst-performing state highway systems in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 44, "name": "Iowa", "detail": "Midwest", "score": "55.7", "blurb": "Leads the nation year after year in the raw number of structurally deficient bridges, with roughly one in five bridges rated deficient in recent federal data (ARTBA Bridge Report; Reason Foundation, 28th Annual Highway Report)." }, { "rank": 45, "name": "New York", "detail": "Northeast", "score": "54.8", "blurb": "Among the five worst state highway systems in the Reason Foundation's 29th report, with congestion losses above 60 hours per commuter per year (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 46, "name": "Louisiana", "detail": "South", "score": "53.9", "blurb": "Among the five worst-performing highway systems in the nation in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 47, "name": "California", "detail": "Pacific", "score": "52.7", "blurb": "Second to last, 49th of 50, in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report on performance and cost-effectiveness (Reason Foundation, 2025)." }, { "rank": 48, "name": "Rhode Island", "detail": "Northeast", "score": "51.6", "blurb": "14.0 percent of its bridges, 110 of 787, rated structurally deficient in the 2025 ARTBA analysis, more than double the national rate, and it ranked sixth worst nationally for poor bridges (ARTBA, 2025; Boston Globe, 2026)." }, { "rank": 49, "name": "Alaska", "detail": "Pacific", "score": "50.4", "blurb": "The worst-performing state highway system in the nation in the Reason Foundation's 29th Annual Highway Report (Reason Foundation)." }, { "rank": 50, "name": "West Virginia", "detail": "South", "score": "48.5", "blurb": "The nation's worst bridge inventory by share: 1,307 of its 7,345 bridges, 17.8 percent, rated structurally deficient in the 2025 ARTBA analysis of federal data, nearly triple the national 6.7 percent (ARTBA Bridge Report, 2025)." } ], "narrative": [ { "heading": "The country's grade is a C, and that is an improvement", "html": "The American Society of Civil Engineers gave U.S. infrastructure an overall C in its 2025 national report card, the highest grade the organization has issued since it began grading in 1998 (ASCE, 2025). The bridge data tell the same slow-improvement story: 6.7 percent of the nation's bridges rated poor as of the June 2025 National Bridge Inventory release, down from nearly 9 percent a decade earlier (FHWA; ARTBA, 2025). Federal money from the 2021 infrastructure law is visibly working through the system.
But the national average hides a spread that this ranking exists to show. West Virginia's structurally deficient bridge share, 17.8 percent, is nearly triple the national rate. Utah's civil engineers just handed their state the highest report-card grade any state has ever received. Both facts come from the same country in the same year.
" }, { "heading": "Only three states have ever earned a C+", "html": "ASCE state sections grade their own states using the same rubric as the national card, and the ceiling is low everywhere. Utah's 2025 C+ made it one of exactly three states at that grade, alongside Georgia and Wisconsin (ASCE, 2025). Utah's card shows what the top of the American range looks like: roads B+, bridges B, drinking water B-, dragged down by a D- for levees and a D+ for canals. Even the best state infrastructure in America carries failing subsystems.
The Reason Foundation's cost-effectiveness rankings add a second, harsher lens: not just what condition the system is in, but what taxpayers paid for it. Virginia ranks first while spending near the bottom per mile; Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Ohio fill out the top five (Reason Foundation, 29th Annual Highway Report). The winners are not the biggest spenders. They are the states whose spending shows up in pavement.
" }, { "heading": "The bridge table is where the gap gets dangerous", "html": "Bridge condition is the most objective infrastructure measure that exists: every public bridge in America is federally inspected on a fixed schedule and rated on the same scale. The 2025 ARTBA tabulation of that data shows West Virginia worst by share at 17.8 percent structurally deficient, with Rhode Island at 14.0 percent; Iowa leads the country in the sheer number of deficient bridges year after year (ARTBA, 2025). In the Reason Foundation's earlier tabulation of 2021 data, West Virginia, Iowa, South Dakota, Rhode Island, and Maine all exceeded 14 percent (Reason Foundation, 28th Annual Highway Report).
At the other end, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Florida keep poor-bridge shares in the low single digits, and Texas does it while operating the largest system in the country (FHWA NBI). Climate, terrain, and bridge age explain part of the gap. Maintenance budgets and prioritization explain the rest. The inspection reports do not record excuses.
" }, { "heading": "Congestion and geography complicate the scoreboard", "html": "The worst overall performers in the Reason Foundation's 29th report, Alaska, California, Washington, New York, and Louisiana, get there by different roads. Alaska fights permafrost and distance. California and New York pair rough urban pavement with the nation's highest costs per mile. New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York commuters lose more than 60 hours a year to congestion, the worst in the nation (Reason Foundation, 2025). A state can have sound bridges and still fail its drivers every morning.
This ranking weights physical condition most heavily because it is the most comparable measure across states. Readers in dense states can fairly object that congestion is their lived infrastructure problem; readers in rural states can fairly object that a deficient bridge on a farm route is invisible in congestion data. Both objections are noted, and the sources for each are named so readers can re-weight for themselves.
" } ], "settled": "The evidence settles that American infrastructure is slowly improving, with the national poor-bridge share down to 6.7 percent from nearly 9 percent a decade ago and ASCE's national grade at a record C (FHWA, 2025; ASCE, 2025). It also settles the extremes: West Virginia has the worst bridge share in the nation at 17.8 percent, Iowa the most deficient bridges by count, and Utah, Georgia, and Wisconsin hold the highest state grades ASCE has ever issued.", "contested": "What remains contested is weighting. Condition-based rankings favor dry, low-traffic, newer-built states; congestion-based rankings punish density regardless of maintenance quality; cost-effectiveness rankings, like Reason's, are argued by critics to reward low-wage, low-standard construction markets. There is also honest dispute about ASCE self-interest, since the engineers who grade infrastructure also build it, which is why this ranking anchors on federal inspection data first.", "charts": [ { "type": "bar", "title": "Share of bridges rated structurally deficient, 2021 data", "unit": "percent of bridges (Reason Foundation, 28th Annual Highway Report)", "data": [ { "label": "West Virginia", "value": 19.97 }, { "label": "Iowa", "value": 19.32 }, { "label": "South Dakota", "value": 16.89 }, { "label": "Rhode Island", "value": 16.58 }, { "label": "Maine", "value": 14.17 } ] }, { "type": "bar", "title": "Bridges rated poor, 2025 federal data", "unit": "percent of bridges (ARTBA/FHWA NBI)", "data": [ { "label": "West Virginia", "value": 17.8 }, { "label": "Rhode Island", "value": 14 }, { "label": "United States", "value": 6.7 } ] } ], "sources": [ { "title": "ASCE, 2025 Infrastructure Report Card (national and state cards)", "url": "https://infrastructurereportcard.org/" }, { "title": "ASCE, Utah's Infrastructure Receives C+ Grade, 2025", "url": "https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/society-news/article/2025/05/29/utah-civil-engineers-release-report-card" }, { "title": "ARTBA, 2025 Bridge Report (FHWA National Bridge Inventory analysis)", "url": "https://artbabridgereport.org/reports/2025-ARTBA-Bridge-Report.pdf" }, { "title": "FHWA, Bridge Condition by Highway System, National Bridge Inventory 2025", "url": "https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/nbi/no10/condition25.cfm" }, { "title": "Reason Foundation, 29th Annual Highway Report", "url": "https://reason.org/highway-report/29th-annual-highway-report/" }, { "title": "Reason Foundation, 28th Annual Highway Report: Structurally Deficient Bridges", "url": "https://reason.org/highway-report/28th-annual-highway-report/structurally-deficient-bridges/" }, { "title": "U.S. News, The States With the Most Bad Bridges, June 2025", "url": "https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2025-06-02/the-states-with-the-most-bad-bridges" }, { "title": "Boston Globe, Rhode Island ranks sixth-worst in the nation for bridges in poor condition, May 2026", "url": "https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/05/metro/rhode-island-bridges-poor-condition/" } ], "faq": [ { "q": "Which state has the best infrastructure?", "a": "Utah, on this composite. Its 2025 ASCE report card grade of C+ is tied for the highest ever given a state, with roads graded B+ and bridges B. Georgia and Wisconsin hold the same overall grade, and Virginia ranks first in the Reason Foundation's highway performance rankings." }, { "q": "Which state has the worst bridges?", "a": "West Virginia by share: 17.8 percent of its bridges, 1,307 of 7,345, rated structurally deficient in the 2025 ARTBA analysis of federal inspection data, nearly triple the national rate of 6.7 percent. Iowa has the most deficient bridges by raw count." }, { "q": "Is U.S. infrastructure getting better or worse?", "a": "Measurably better. The national share of poor bridges fell to 6.7 percent in 2025 from nearly 9 percent a decade earlier (FHWA), and ASCE's 2025 national grade of C is the best it has issued since grading began in 1998." }, { "q": "Why do some rich states rank so low?", "a": "Because condition and congestion are different failures. California and New York pair high spending per mile with rough urban pavement and heavy congestion, ranking 49th and in the bottom five respectively in the Reason Foundation's 29th report. Money spent is not the metric here; measured condition is." } ] }