Pavement Conditions Index (PCI)
The quality of the pavement on our streets and roads is an important part of the Bay Area’s transportation infrastructure. MTC helps Bay Area jurisdictions analyze pavement conditions to invest scarce maintenance funding through the use of StreetSaver.
The Pavement Conditions Index (PCI) provides a snapshot of the pavement health of a road. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 (where 100 means a newly paved road), and many factors affect a city’s or county’s PCI score. These include pavement age, climate and precipitation, traffic loads and available maintenance funding.
A new housing development with new streets may have a high overall PCI, while an older, urbanized area may have a much lower PCI, even though both are practicing pavement preservation.
Cities and counties that practice pavement preservation will have lower long-term maintenance costs and will safeguard their investment in local streets and roads.
MTC provides technical assistance to Bay Area cities and counties to fund local pavement distress surveys by trained MTC consultants. This data set, which includes pavement conditions and maintenance history records, is updated every three years to predict maintenance needs and costs.
The State of Bay Area Pavement
Did you know that the typical stretch of Bay Area asphalt shows serious wear and likely will require rehabilitation soon?
At 67 out of a possible 100 points, the region’s average PCI score is much closer to the 60-point threshold at which deterioration accelerates rapidly.
MTC's updated 2023 Pavement Conditions Summary includes a table showing the average PCI scores for each Bay Area city and county at the end of 2023.