They beat Louisiana? That's ridiculous. It's not even funny. Chunks of Louisiana are swamp, for crying out loud. I don't see how you could make roads any worse than ours except by bombing them or something.
You apparently have never driven in Pennsylvania. You may have swamps, but we have freeze-thaw cycles and use salt on the roads with every snowstorm. Potholes wherever you drive.
I don't know man. Have you ever driven pa roads? They suck with a passion...
what part of La. are you. Sure with the Hurricane damage a lot of otherwise good areas would be in bad shape, but I usually go down I-10/12 or Hwy 190 and the roads seemed pretty good to me (mostly because I hang around Southern La. when I go down there)..
And we use shell rather than gravel as a base for the roadbed.