The state’s streets and spans rank No. 48 in the U.S. for cost-effectiveness and condition, according to the 29th Annual Highway Report from the Reason Foundation , a libertarian think tank, published Thursday. Only California and Alaska , which respectively placed 49th and 50th, fared worse.
Virginia , Georgia and South Carolina came in first, second and third — in that order.
Washington dropped a spot in the Annual Highway Report ranking compared with last year, when it was rated 47th of 50 states. In this year’s ranking, Washington was the highest-spending state across multiple classifications, according to the foundation.
This comes as state officials have sought to boost funding for transportation-related upkeep.
Gov. Bob Ferguson praised state lawmakers for delivering on his priorities in a post-session news release.
“In my budget, I proposed $1.5 billion for maintenance and preservation of our roads and bridges over the next six years, without raising taxes,” he said in the March 12 release. “I appreciate the Legislature adopting that historic level of funding.”
The release noted the state is home to 342 bridges that are at least 80 years old, while 212 spans are in poor condition.
But Baruch Feigenbaum , lead author of the 29th Annual Highway Report and Reason Foundation’s senior managing director of transportation policy, said in a statement that Washington should focus on making the most of its money.
“While the state’s performance is acceptable in Structurally Deficient Bridges (23rd), its bottom-ranked spending efficiency and poor pavement quality need to be prioritized,” Feigenbaum said.
The state came in dead last for maintenance — as well as capital and bridge — disbursements, the findings show. The former includes the expenses of filling in potholes and repaving roads; the latter means the costs of constructing new bridges and roads and broadening existing ones.
Washington was declared No. 44 in terms of its highways’ urban arterial pavement condition and 43rd in rural interstate pavement condition, according to the foundation.
The annual report dug into all 50 states’ highway systems, analyzing federal data to log performance across categories including spending, pavement quality, bridge condition, traffic fatalities and congestion.
Overall, the performance of Washington’s highways was better than the Golden State’s (49th) but worse than nearby neighbors Oregon (33rd), Idaho (26th), Nevada (25th) and Montana (22nd), the foundation says.
When it comes to traffic congestion, the report placed the Evergreen State in 39th, with commuters ensnared in traffic jams about 34 hours per year.
Washington deteriorated the most in its rural fatality rate compared with the previous year’s report, going from 18th to 34th this year. WA’s new crash prevention zone law
On Friday the governor signed into law Senate Bill 6066 by Sen. Nikki Torres , a Pasco Republican. The bill aims to make the state’s roadways safer by reducing dangerous crash hotspots.
Earlier this month it cleared the House on a 94-2 vote, and the Senate’s final approval saw it pass 48-1.
SB 6066 lets the state’s transportation department and local governments launch “crash-prevention zones” where there has been a proven pattern of fatal or serious collisions, according to a news release. Then jurisdictions must conduct investigations to determine safety improvements such as speed changes or upgraded lighting or signage.
The zones will also see increased traffic enforcement from police agencies while automated traffic-safety cameras can help to identify speeding, the release says. Penalties are rising, too, for drivers caught using a personal electronic device in a designated zone.
The March 23 release states that the law comes after a series of fatal crashes in recent years along U.S. 395 , between Mesa and Pasco .
“These are not just numbers,” Torres said in a statement. “These are lives lost, families changed, and a community asking why it keeps happening. This bill gives us a way to take that data and turn it into action.”
The bill takes effect 90 days after Sine Die; the 2026 legislative session adjourned March 12 .
©2026 The Olympian, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
