Washington Has Some Of The Roughest Roads In The U.S.: Report

SEATTLE — Bad news for the Evergreen State, as a recent report has found that, despite investing pretty heavily in road investment and operation, Washington has one of the worst overall road conditions in the country.

According to the study by MoneyGeek, Washington has the 11th worst overall road conditions, despite spending more than many other states on road repair, roughly $4.7 billion on road operations and capital investments. That puts Washington as the state with the 18th largest investment in road repair, at $13.81 capital outlay per lane mile.

However, Washington isn't the only state struggling to improve its roadways. Researchers looked road roughness and state spending across the board and say they found that, generally, investments in roads have only served to maintain roads as-is.

"While state and local governments spend billions each year on road maintenance and operations, a new analysis from MoneyGeek suggests taxpayers are not necessarily getting their money’s worth," researchers wrote. "At best, they are getting just enough road investment to maintain the current condition of roads, but not enough to improve them."

One key factor for their research was each state's international roughness index (IRI), a road quality measurement used by the Federal Highway Administration. Washington's IRI was found to be 120.7, with 22 percent of the state's roads in poor condition. The Federal Highway Administration says any IRI between 95 and 170 is acceptable, with greater than 170 being "poor". Fortunately, only one place had an IRI above 170: Washington D.C., which had an IRI of 214.9 because 80 percent of its roads are in poor condition.

Here are the states with the roughest road in the country, according to MoneyGeek's research:

1. District of Columbia
2. Rhode Island
3. California
4. Hawaii
5. Nebraska
6. Wisconsin
7. New York
8. Massachusetts
9. New Jersey
10. Michigan
11. Washington

>> Read MoneyGeek's full study on road conditions and spending by state.