You’ve perhaps heard Wisconsin’s roads are the nation’s third worst. That’s a finding – by the American Society of Civil Engineers – that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is refuting.
“When we ran the numbers, we almost had inverse results,” said Patty Mayers with the WisDOT Office of Public Affairs.
Mayers said the Civil Engineers report relied on a little used “roughness” indicator to rank Wisconsin’s roads. The disputed report claimed 71 percent of state roads in mediocre or worse condition. State DOT analysis of 2013 “roughness” data found less than half that number — 32 percent — in that category.
More importantly, Mayer said WisDOT uses more widely accepted methodology to produce an accurate and useful description of overall pavement condition. In fact, 2015 pavement condition data demonstrates that 86 percent of state highways and 91 percent of local roadways are rated in fair and above condition. Conversely, 14 percent of state highways, and 9 percent of local roadways are rated in poor and below condition.