Crenshaw County’s roads rank sixth in the state, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation’s annual maintenance inspection results, which were recently released.

ALDOT is required to inspect all county-owned paved roads that were built using state or federal money, and those roads are graded on criteria such as pavement condition, rideability, shoulder condition, striping, signs, mowing and clearing of right of way.

Those roads are then graded on a scale of 100 points.

Overall, Crenshaw County had a score of 92.64, with 16 projects in the 96-100 range, 45 projects in the 86-95 range, three projects in the 76-85 and no projects below that threshold.

“Our state ranking has gone up even with flat funding,” said County Engineer Benjie Sanders. “I think that says a lot about the Commission and the Highway Department employees.  I want to commend them for being able to become sixth in the state in maintenance department scores.”

Sanders said that the county has been able to find more innovative ways to spend its money, such as doing its own work on road shoulders, erosion control and striping.

Because of that, more money can be spent in other areas.

“We’re basically doing two miles of resurfacing where we used to do one,” Sanders said.

The county’s road score has been steadily increasing since 1996, when the overall grade was 75.7.

The county reached the 80-point average mark in 2001 and the 90-point average in 2008.

Since 2009, Crenshaw County has been ranked in the state’s top 10.