See How Benicia, Solano County Roads Stack Up To Rest Of Bay Area

BENICIA, CA — The city of Benicia did not fare so well in a recently released report that analyzes the quality of Bay Area roads.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees transportation planning and more for the nine-county Bay Area, annually releases its Pavement Condition Index for the region's jurisdictions, including cities. Last month MTC released its latest report, which assigns communities a score of one to 100 — with 100 being the best possible score — based on a three-year average of data collected from 2017 to 2019. From there, communities were placed in categories ranging from "Excellent" to "Poor."

Best, Worst Roads In Bay Area

Who's got the worst roads in the Bay Area? The city of Petaluma once again was ranked dead last in the "Poor" category with a score of 45 PCI. Joining Petaluma in the "Poor" category were: the city of Pacifica with 46 PCI, unincorporated Sonoma County with 47 PCI, and unincorporated Napa County with 49 PCI.

While no cities ranked "Excellent," Dublin again topped the "Very Good" category with a Pavement Condition Index — PCI — score of 85. Palo Alto and Cupertino followed with PCI scores of 84.

The Bay Area as a region scored 67 PCI but MTC has a goal of reaching a regional average of 85.

According to MTC, "Poor" means the jurisdiction's roads require major rehabilitation or reconstruction.

Benicia Roads "At Risk," Report Says

The city of Benicia in 2019 scored 52 PCI for its 198 total lane miles of pavement, down from 53 PCI in 2018 and 55 PCI in 2017, according to the report.

Vallejo, which has 710.9 total lane miles of pavement, scored 51 PCI in 2019, down from 52 in 2018 and 53 in 2017.

Both cities are in the "At-Risk" category, which according to MTC means the cities' roads are at risk of requiring major rehabilitation or reconstruction.

As for the unincorporated Solano County jurisdiction, it scored 81 PCI for 927 lane miles of pavement, putting it in the "Very Good" category, meaning its roads show only slight or moderate distress, requiring primarily preventive maintenance.

Fairfield scored 71 PCI placing it in the "Good" category, while Vacaville scored 69 PCI putting it in the "Fair" category alongside Dixon with 64 PCI, Rio Vista with 62 PCI and Suisun City with 60 PCI.

According to MTC, "Fair" means the jurisdiction's roads are becoming worn to the point where rehabilitation may be needed to prevent rapid deterioration.

"Because major repairs cost five to 10 times more than routine maintenance, these streets are at an especially critical stage," according to MTC's news release.

As for Aggregate City and County rankings, which is the average PCI score for each county when combined with the PCI scores and total lane miles for all its cities, San Francisco County topped the list with a 74 PCI in the "Good" category, while Solano County scored 67 PCI, putting it in the "Fair" category for its 3,645 total lane miles of pavement.

At the bottom of the Aggregate City and County rankings list in the "At-Risk" category were Napa County with 57 PCI for 1,517 total lane miles of pavement and Sonoma County with 54 PCI for 4,934 lane miles of pavement. Roads in both counties are at risk of requiring major rehabilitation or reconstruction, according to MTC.

Good News, Bad News

"The good news is that the SB 1 gas tax money that cities and counties began receiving a couple years ago has helped prevent sliding backward," MTC Chair Scott Haggerty said in a news release. "But the bad news is that forward progress is slow and there’s still a long, steep climb to get where we want to be."

Read the full report here.

Patch editor Courtney Teague contributed to this report.