See How Berkeley, Alameda Co. Roads Compare To Rest Of Bay Area

BERKELEY, CA — The city of Berkeley ranked "At-Risk" on 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

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.

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.

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

Best, Worst Roads In Alameda County

Dublin is the only city in Alameda County to land in the "Very Good" category (85 PCI).

Several cities in the county landed in the "Good" category topped by Livermore and Pleasanton (79 PCI), followed closely by Union City (78 PCI), Newark (75 PCI), Emeryville (74 PCI), Fremont (73 PCI), Alameda COunty roads (71 PCI), and two cities barely slipped into this category — Alameda and Hayward (70 PCI).

Down in the "Fair" category is just one Alameda County city, Piedmont (64 PCI).

"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.

At the bottom of the rankings list in the "At-Risk" category were Albany, Berkeley, and San Leandro all tied (57 PCI), and Oakland (55 PCI).

No East Bay roads ranked in the "Poor" category.

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 editors Courtney Teague, Maggie Fusek, and Bea Karnes contributed to this report.