The Replacement Cost of the USA's Roads
According to a Wikipedia article, there are about 2.6 million miles of paved road in the U.S. According to the Washington Asphalt Pavement Association the number is 2.5 million miles. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics gives the number at 2.7M in 2008.
The cost per lane-mile varies by state, and according to the quality of the road (Interstates cost way more per mile than rural roads) and vary widely by state. Florida's reference model for highway construction estimates $1.5 per mile for a new two lane rural road, $3M/mile for a new four-lane suburban road, and $7.5M for a new four lane divided Interstate road.
A report by the Washington Department of Transportation compares road building costs per lane-mile for comparable road in 25 states. They vary from $1M to $8M, with most of the country between $1-2M and New York, New Jersey, and several New England states ranging from $3M to $8.5M (New York). Maine comes in at nearly $4M per lane-mile.
The lowest estimating number I've found with a less-than-exhaustive search is this, from the Ohio Department of Transportation, which gives $120K/ lane mile for two lane roads, and $520K for four lane roads. However these are 1998 costs and have to be indexed upward.
So I think we can use $1M/mile as a nice, conservative lower estimate, and $10M/mile as an upper estimate.
This makes the roads in this country worth somewhere between $2.5 and $25 trillion dollars.
Just the roads. Not the cars. Not the houses. Not the stores. Not the office buildings. Not the factories. Not the stuff that's in the houses and stores and buildings and factories. Not the country's natural resources, or the value of its businesses, apart from physical plant. Not the value of an educated workforce. None of it. Trillions of dollars just for roads.
The cost per lane-mile varies by state, and according to the quality of the road (Interstates cost way more per mile than rural roads) and vary widely by state. Florida's reference model for highway construction estimates $1.5 per mile for a new two lane rural road, $3M/mile for a new four-lane suburban road, and $7.5M for a new four lane divided Interstate road.
A report by the Washington Department of Transportation compares road building costs per lane-mile for comparable road in 25 states. They vary from $1M to $8M, with most of the country between $1-2M and New York, New Jersey, and several New England states ranging from $3M to $8.5M (New York). Maine comes in at nearly $4M per lane-mile.
The lowest estimating number I've found with a less-than-exhaustive search is this, from the Ohio Department of Transportation, which gives $120K/ lane mile for two lane roads, and $520K for four lane roads. However these are 1998 costs and have to be indexed upward.
So I think we can use $1M/mile as a nice, conservative lower estimate, and $10M/mile as an upper estimate.
This makes the roads in this country worth somewhere between $2.5 and $25 trillion dollars.
Just the roads. Not the cars. Not the houses. Not the stores. Not the office buildings. Not the factories. Not the stuff that's in the houses and stores and buildings and factories. Not the country's natural resources, or the value of its businesses, apart from physical plant. Not the value of an educated workforce. None of it. Trillions of dollars just for roads.
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