Road Infrastructure

Different Types of Road Infrastructure:

            Road systems are very complicated.  There are several different types of roads that are maintained and controlled by various bodies.  The largest roadways are interstate highways.  These roads are divided highways with several lanes.  These roadways continue across state boundaries, sometimes all the way from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. Interstate highways rigidly run either north to south or east to west.  The next type of roads are US Highways.  US Highways vary with the amount of lanes and access roads they have.  They also retain the same road number across states. After this comes roads maintained by the state They are termed state highways, roads, or routes.  These roads can be divided highways all the way to quiet backroads.  These road numberings do not have to be consistent across state boundaries.  The lowest type of roads are country or secondary roads.  These are used for local use in rural areas.  They are usually only two lane roads that are not usually marked on highway maps.  These roads can either be paved or unpaved.

Map of Pennsylvania State Roads 

        

            There are four primary jurisdictions that control roads.  The most obvious is federal jurisdiction, which accounts for only about 3% of all roads.  State jurisdiction accounts for about 19.6% of all roads.  Local jurisdiction, which includes towns, townships, and municipalities are in charge of about 30.6% of all roads.  45% of all roads are under county jurisdiction.  The other 1.8% is under other jurisdiction.  The quality and maintenance of each of these types of roads depends on the body that is in charge of it.  Currently 32% of  all major roads in America are in poor condition. [3]