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Bay Area’s 44,000 lane-miles of local streets and roads have started to show signs of wear, with the region’s 2023 pavement condition index (PCI) score landing at 67 out of a possible 100, meaning the region is in urgent need of rehabilitation. This grade, announced by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), was the ninth consecutive year Bay Area’s streets were graded as “fair” according to a three-year moving average.
Said Alfredo Pedroza, Chair MTC and Napa County Supervisor, “While promising to see one-year PCI increase from 45 in 2022 to 52 in 2023 in Napa County, our roads rank among the lowest-rated of the Bay Area, making it challenging to achieve the MTC’s goal to achieve a state of good repair for all regional streets.”. The good news is that the local public works teams have succeeded in pushing off severe deterioration and with some areas being noted, there is much that remains to be achieved.
PCI ratings of 90 and above are ranked as “excellent”, meaning that newly built or resurfaced roads had very few distresses. Streets within the 80-89 range are very good and require mainly preventive maintenance. “Good” ratings range between 70-79, while those streets at the edge of requiring rehabilitation scored between 60-69, which would be considered “fair.” “At-risk” is the rank for roads scored between 50-59, and those in the “poor” rank, between 25-49, require significant rehabilitation. Those roads scoring below 25 are labeled as “failed”.
In the Bay Area’s largest network, San José improved to the “good” range with a three-year PCI average of 71. San Francisco stayed at 74, while Oakland’s three-year average rose to 57. Petaluma led the pack in one-year improvement, jumping to 55 (from 43) in 2022 and moving from “poor” to “at-risk.”
Notably improved are Cotati at 74, from “fair” to “good,” and Moraga increased to 76. With the highest single-year Bay Area PCI score at 89, Larkspur achieved “very good” status after passing several local sales tax measures in favor of its streets.
Larkspur, Orinda, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Hillsborough, and Solano County are unincorporated areas that also attained a PCI rating of “very good” for the third year in a row. Vallejo and Pacifica, as well as Petaluma and the unincorporated sections of Napa County, are still in the “poor” category.
