See How Healdsburg Roads Stack Up To Rest Of Bay Area

HEALDSBURG, CA — The city of Healdsburg fared decently but Sonoma County did not do 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."

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.

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 for the city's 391.8 total lane miles of pavement. 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 Sonoma County

The city of Healdsburg, which has 94.1 total lane miles of pavement, scored 61 PCI putting it in the "Fair" category.

The town of Windsor had the highest Sonoma County score, 77 PCI, for its 171.1 lane miles of pavement, while the city of Sonoma which has 68.3 lane miles of pavement scored 72 PCI, putting both cities in the "Good" category.

Alongside Healdsburg in the "Fair" category were: the city of Rohnert Park, which has 227.9 lane miles of pavement and a 68 PCI, and the city of Santa Rosa with 61 PCI and 1,128.6 lane miles of pavement.

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," MTC officials said in a news release.

The city of Cloverdale scored 57 PCI for 64.7 total lane miles, placing it in the "At-Risk" category alongside the city of Cotati, which scored 57 PCI for 48.6 lane miles of pavement, and the city of Sebastopol with 51 PCI for 47.5 lane miles of pavement. The cities' roads are at risk of requiring major rehabilitation or reconstruction, according to MTC.

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.

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.