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Benchmarks: Slow improvement continues in regional road quality
Sunday, October 22, 2000 By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Major roads continue to improve in the Pittsburgh urban area, but ever so slowly and not enough to gain in the PG Benchmarks survey of 14 other cities.
The International Roughness Index, or IRI, a worldwide standard for measuring highway quality, was 137 here for 1998, the latest figure available from the Federal Highway Administration.
The 137 IRI represents the number of inches per mile that major highway surfaces deviate from being perfectly smooth. The higher the number, the worse the road.
Click to a graphic ranking the PG Benchmarks communities by one measure of highway quality
The Pittsburgh area's IRI was 152 in 1996 and 145 in 1997, so 1998 represents a 15-point improvement. However, Pittsburgh ranked 11th for the third year in a row and tied with Portland, Ore., for the last two years.
"PennDOT has made significant improvements with ride quality on the interstates," said Ron Geist, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association, an industry-supported road improvement advocacy group. "But, PennDOT still has a way to go on non-interstates [such as the Allegheny Valley Expressway] and on major arterials," such as Routes 22, 30, 51 and 60.
Atlanta, Ga., retained the top spot in the PG Benchmarks update of highway quality with an IRI of 61, although traffic congestion and delays in metropolitan Atlanta have become some of the worst in the nation.
Other Southern urban areas, including Phoenix and Tampa, also continue to fare better than Northern areas because of better terrain, soil conditions and climate.
"Roads have been a major issue in Pittsburgh and throughout Pennsylvania for some time, but PennDOT has had extra state and federal funding to spend on improvements for several years now," said Bill Sullivan, spokesman for a PHIA counterpart, The Road Information Program, or TRIP. "The improvements are making a major difference. Truckers no longer consider you No. 1 for the worst roads, do they?"
Transportation, especially by private motor vehicles, has gained importance on people's radar screens because of its big impact on the quality of life.
As highways improve, Sullivan said, expectations grow and "congestion pops up as a top-tier issue" in urban areas such as Pittsburgh.
TRIP's latest survey about road quality gives Pittsburgh a better rating than does the Federal Highway Administration, with 10 percent of 1,068 miles of major highways in the urban area rated "poor" and 20 percent rated "mediocre." Half of the 15 PG Benchmarks cities ranked lower.
As a state, Pennsylvania's 1,250 miles of interstates have improved to an IRI of 88, surpassing the 1998 national standard of a 92 IRI and making them the smoothest in 30 years.
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