Truck Topics

The EO Forums Speaks: The Worst Roads in North America

In an ideal world, you'd never have to think about the conditions of the actual road you're driving on.  Everything would be smooth sailing, so to speak, and there'd be no problems.  How nice would that be?  Talk about rose-colored glasses.  Unfortunately, that's not the case.

The country's highways and byways are built, repaired, and resurfaced on a state level, and some states pay closer attention to their roads than others.  So, which North American roads are the worst?

I asked the question at the ExpeditersOnline forums, and as you might expect, came back with some lively conversation, some clear opinion, and a measureable amount of agreement--which is also no surprise to me.  That's not to say that the fact that there are still terrible roads isn't a surprise; it is.  You'd think that with the amount of available technology and know-how that we'd be able to keep our roads pleasantly traversable on a consistent basis.  This, apparently, isn't the case.

In the conversation thread about this issue, one state's highways came up with a steady regularity: Michigan.  I'm not sure exactly why this is, but most folks seem to agree: Michigan's roads could definitely use some work.  Piper1, a senior member at the EO forums, says, "They lay all that pretty concrete down and in a few years it turns into a suspension test. Then it seems to get ignored for a few after that."

Greg334 agrees: "I could have given one example, it is Southfield road between I75 and I94 which was the worst of the worst (two front end alignments and a set of shocks). They are 'rebuilding' it which means dumping on a soft top to it which will last 3 years at most."

Really, that's just the beginning of it.  Through the several pages of responses, you'll see concurrence after concurrence.  If you look closely, you'll even find a bit of deft sarcasm from layoutshooter: "Not to worry Greg, all these road problems are part of the grand plan to keep America working!!! It is all good for employment. More road crew jobs. More work for truck mechanics, more work for the parts suppliers. The only ones it hurts are the taxpayers, truck drivers and car owners."

This isn't to say, of course, that Michigan holds an exclusive claim on rough roads.  There were plenty of others, like I40 West of Flagstaff and in the Oklahoma City area, I-86 coming out of New York City, and the stretch of road between Slidell and Baton Rouge in Louisiana.  But there was one particular area that got a few additional mentions and agreements.  Can you guess where?

If you said Manitoba, Canada, you deserve a prize.  1Chingon says, "Those roads make Michigan, et al, seem rather smooth."  Lawrence McCord agrees and builds on this idea: "I have to agree about Manitoba - the roads in the City of Winnipeg are probably the worst I have ever experienced in a large metropolitan city."

While conversation and inside tips might be one of the better places for advice about what roads to avoid, there's also no shortage of other outside stories and lists indexing America's rough spots.  Many of these lists seem to weigh injury and fatality statistics more heavily than just the raw conditions of the roads, which might explain why places like, say, Michigan haven't topped these lists.

I-10 in Louisiana, however, did make a MSN list from June of 2009, with what seems like a reasonable explanation as to why it might be difficult to maintain: water.  Well, not only water, but the fact too that the soil shifts in Louisiana much more easily than it does in other parts of the country.  These factors mean that the ground that I-10 is built upon in Louisiana don't take so well to permanent structures and therefore, the highway seems to be in need of maintenance a bit more regularly than one might otherwise expect.

On another list compiled following an Overdrive Magazine poll, Michigan scored 4th worst behind Pennsylvania, Missouri and (you guessed it) Louisiana.

A third article, this time from Yahoo!, again brought up Louisiana.  This raises a question in my mind.  If commercial drivers are so clearly aware of the problems with roads and media outlets are at least as aware, why is it that the states themselves seem to be unaware?  To be sure, there are sometimes prohibitive costs involved in terms of how the state in question has managed their budget, or in special cases like Louisiana's, a continuous recovery effort following natural disasters may be an influencing factor.

To be sure, the fact remains that the roads are about as rugged as roads can be.  The silver lining to take away from this, I suppose, might be a not-so-promising one: ten years from now, it's highly likely that the worst roads in America will be somewhere else.  Whether there'll be a wholesale improvement across the board?  That's another matter entirely.