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I drive on I-44 many, many times throughout the year and have yet to consider this stretch through Missouri in great shape. Of course MODot is working to improve our roads, however, much really needs to be accomplished in order to call these roads in great shape. Now I-70 is also in need of improvements. Heavy traffic at all times contribute to the deterioration of this interstate.
Then we have Highway 50! Try that one on for size. Some attention to the worst stretches has been made. However, rough spots and pot holes do exist. The best highway IMHO at this time is '63' from Jefferson City to Columbia, MO. Even as far south towards Rolla it is in very good shape.
They may not be in GREAT shape, but they are not in bad shape either.
Any city in the South has a bit of an advantage since the roads don't have the constant freeze-thaw and plow damage that roads in the snowy areas have. Even with that, some roads in the South suck big time. In SC, some roads would go years and years without being resurfaced. I remember lots of sun-bleached stretches of road that had been around for a decade or more. Up here in Chicago, between heavy use and cold weather, massive, tire-popping potholes can appear overnight. I hit one getting onto Lakeshore Drive from Michigan Ave and not only popped a tire, but cracked my rim as well. The whole section of Lakeshore above Irving Park is still on reduced speed awaiting resurfacing this summer. Not great...
the worst roads would have to be Illinois in my opinion, I-88 has be under construction for the last 6 years, I-294 has been under construction since it was built back in the 1980s, I-94 well anybody lives in the chicago metro area knows, I-55 is a parking lot, I-355 well they dont know the hell they are doing with that road, the two nice roads in the state are I-55 south of joliet, and I-57 south of Kankakee, and sad part abought those two roads is that they are not even toll roads and the others are.
Missourri has okay roads, and surprisingly, Mississippi's are not really that bad IMO. Texas has the best roads. Not sure where California came into the awesome roads equation, I've never heard anything very positive like I do about Texas. Call me sheltered
On the worst roads list, New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Louisiana's roads are improving every day. A majority of the mediocre roads are back country roads that are not heavily traveled. In Louisiana, the worst place for roads is New Orleans. This is mainly because the ground moves and expands and contracts so much. It is almost impossible to keep a freshly paved road completely smooth for more than a few years. In contrast, roads in northern Louisiana, where the soil is more stable, and traffic is much lighter, are comparably better than those in South Louisiana.
I have been to a lot of states in the midwest and northeast. That being said:
BEST: WEST VIRGINIA and DELAWARE (neither of which anyone has mentioned)
WORST: PENNSYLVANIA hands down...........and i'll throw Illinois metro area in there too.
(I don't know why someone said Indiana is bad??.......)
I'll put down Louisiana as the worst. In terms of overall quality, Michigan is pretty even with them, and Louisiana doesn't have the same wicked freeze/thaw cycles to deal with, problems with settling or no. It's amazing how the road quality on I-10 drops so quickly once you cross the MS/LA state line.
Floirda's roads are well built, but everyone's working off a transportation grid plan that was developed when there were only 7-8 million people in the state and the result is a tendency toward voercrowding.
Michigan's roads are awful. This winter has been extremely hard on them. They are literally falling apart before my eyes. They are worse on the drive home from work than they were on the way in.
I think there would be more people listing Michigan at the top, but the rest of the country doesn't experience our roads unless they are coming HERE. You don't need to drive through Michigan to get anywhere, really, except maybe Canada.
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