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Montana's Highways Ranked 2nd Best in Nation

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Sep 6, 2010 at 5:16 PM MST

Story Updated: Sep 6, 2010 at 5:18 PM MST

There is good news for Labor Day travelers when it comes to our roads. Motorists can feel more comfortable knowing Montana was commended for having the second best highways in the nation.

The ranking comes from the 19th Annual Highway Report by the Reason Foundation based in California. Our neighbor, North Dakota, took home the title as having the best highways, but Montana improved its ranking three spots from last year.

The foundation studies eleven categories including costs per mile, congestion, and pavement and bridge conditions. The study found Montana has the least urban interstate congestion, and the best rural highways.
The category which hurt Montana is highway fatalities. The Treasure State is at the very bottom of the ranking in the amount of deaths per highway mile traveled. Officials credit that to the rural makeup of the state where crashes occur far from hospitals.

For the most part, the people we spoke with think the roads are good, but say the number two ranking might be a little high.

Kansas, New Mexico and Nebraska round out the top five and Rhode Island is ranked last.

The study found with the recession Americans aren't driving as much leading to less wear on the roads; which may be why state highway conditions are the best they've been since the foundation started the study 19 years ago.

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