BISMARCK -- For the second year in a row, a national foundation has rated North Dakota No. 1 in maintaining its roads and bridges, with New Jersey ranked last.
Minnesota is 18th, South Dakota is seventh, Montana is second and Wyoming is fourth.
The Reason Foundation released its 17th annual report on the performance of state highway systems Thursday, the day before the first anniversary of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Its report measures each state's road conditions and expenditures.
North Dakota was first in overall performance and tied for first for best urban interstate condition and for its lack of urban interstate congestion as well as in several other areas, such as its lack of narrow rural pavement.
Its lowest rankings are for rural primary pavement conditions (33rd place) and deficient bridges, where it is in 25th place with nearly a quarter of its bridges deemed structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. It also is in 25th place for its fatality rate.
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The report came out on the day a new Missouri River bridge was opened in Bismarck-Mandan. The new Liberty Memorial Bridge is replacing another that is more than 80 years old and needed major repairs only a few years ago to make sure it could safely carry traffic until the new one opened.
State Department of Transportation Director Francis Ziegler said it's exciting to be No. 1 and he said the eight-year-long project of widening and improving Interstate 29 in the Fargo area is representative of how the department tries to stay ahead of the need to handle growing traffic.
Now, he said, he would like to reduce the fatality rate in the state by getting more people to wear their seat belts and not drive while drunk.
Minnesota's rank was dragged down in part by its urban interstate congestion, in which it ranked 49th place with 79.4 percent congested traffic. But the state was aided by its second place in fatality rates.
The Reason Foundation is a nonpartisan research organization whose mission is to "advance a free society by developing, applying and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets and the rule of law."
