Pavement Conditions: Overall Condition Index (OCI)

Similar to bridge maintenance, quality of road pavement conditions affect freight deliveries, tourism, and daily commuters. Road pavement conditions are measured using the Overall Condition Index (OCI). While the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission collects data for all 43 municipalities in the region, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments conducts a survey of road conditions in Franklin County using a different system. Thus, a comparison between the two areas is not possible. OCI values span from 0 to 100, where zero indicates that the road is impassable and 100 indicates that a road in excellent condition. Average OCIs are computed for each community for the total number of miles of road eligible to receive federal aid.

Most recently, data was collected for the Pioneer Valley Region (Hampden & Hampshire Counties) in 2011 and again in 2015. During this time, pavement conditions across the Pioneer Valley region worsened by an average of 3.9% annually. Trends were fairly similar in both counties, though the decrease was more significant in Hampden County which experienced an average annual drop of 4.4 percent.