See How Lamorinda, CoCo Roads Stack Up To Rest Of Bay Area

LAMORINDA, CA — Roads in Lamorinda ranked "Good" 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.

Lafayette (76 PCI), Orinda 75 PCI), and Moraga (72 PCI) roads are all rated in the "Good" category.

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 Contra Costa County

The city of Concord had a PCI score last year of 60, placing the pavement conditions of the city's roads in the "Fair" category alongside Antioch (68 PCI), Hercules (67 PCI), Pinole (62 PCI), Pleasant Hill (67 PCI), Richmond (64 PCI) and Martinez (63).

According to the MTC report, notable improvements in pavement conditions were registered last year in the Contra Costa County cities of Orinda and Martinez.

In Martinez, the city’s three-year average PCI score rose to 63 last year from 51 in 2017, while Orinda’s three-year average score jumped to 75 from 60 in the 2015-17 reporting period.

A PCI score of 63 put Martinez in the "Fair" category. Although it was an improvement for the city, "Fair" in MTC's terms means the pavement conditions of the jurisdiction's roads — and that of Concord's — 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.

Unincorporated Contra Costa County roads, however, scored 72 PCI putting it in the "Good" category.

Brentwood scored 82 PCI, the highest in Contra Costa County, placing that city in the "Very Good" category meaning its roads show only slight or moderate distress, requiring primarily preventive maintenance. Danville and El Cerrito, with PCI scores of 80, also landed in the "Very Good" category.

San Ramon scored a 79 PCI putting the city's roads in the "Good" category alongside Oakley (77 PCI), Lafayette (76 PCI), Orinda 75 PCI), Walnut Creek (73 PCI), Moraga (72 PCI), and San Pablo (72 PCI).

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 alongside Contra Costa County with its 70 PCI score.

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