The following table is readable only to screen readers.
Freshly paved roads feel great under any set of wheels: automobile, motorcycle, bus, bicycle, scooter, or skateboard. Unfortunately, roads in the Boston region steadily deteriorate with time, use, and New England weather. Investments are made in roadway maintenance to extend pavement life and keep rides smooth. Pavement condition is measured using the present serviceability index (PSI), which accounts for cracking, rutting, asphalt disintegration, and ride quality. PSI scores range from zero (impassable) to five (perfectly smooth).
The visualizations on this page show data from the Massachusetts Roadway Inventory for the years 2007 to 2014. For more information about this performance measure and related data, visit the Pavement section on the About page.
Scroll down to compare pavement conditions on non-interstate roadways in the region’s cities and towns. The first column presents the overall distribution of pavement segments on the National Highway System (NHS), excluding interstates, and all MassDOT-owned non-NHS roads by their PSI score, with the average value highlighted. The second and third columns display the percent of pavement and the total lane miles of pavement on these roadways with acceptable PSI scores, respectively. The PSI thresholds for “excellent,” “good,” “fair,” and “poor” are less stringent for these roadways than for interstates.
Select a city or town from the list to see how the pavement conditions on non-interstate roadways on the NHS and all MassDOT-owned non-NHS roads within the municipality have changed over time. Each line charts the PSI value of a segment of a non-interstate road over the past decade.