Paducah plans full street reinspection in 2026 after budget increases stabilize pavement conditions

Paducah city officials said the city will re-inspect 100% of its streets in 2026 to update a pavement-condition baseline and guide rehabilitation work, after annual sampling in 2024 and 2025 showed modest improvement following recent budget increases.

"The city of Paducah has approximately 200 miles of streets in the PAVER database," said Megan Mansfield, chief growth officer for BFW Markham Engineering, citing the firm's pavement condition index (PCI) work for the city. Mansfield said the database represents roughly 400 directional miles of roadway and that the city inspected about 20% of those streets in both 2024 and 2025.

Mansfield described the PAVER/PCI system used to prioritize work, saying the city's critical PCI is set at 65. "We set the critical PCI for the city of Paducah at 65," she said, explaining that streets scoring below that threshold are generally candidates for rehabilitation rather than lower-cost preventative repairs.

The presentation included cost comparisons intended to show why early maintenance matters: "If we can repair a street in that yellow and green category, it's about $1 per square foot compared to $4 to $5 a square foot after we've reached that critical state," Mansfield said.

Mansfield reported the 2025 PCI snapshot showed about 24% of the network in the good category, 17% satisfactory and 23% fair, with roughly half the streets on the network below the city's critical PCI. She said that trend reflects a combination of historic deterioration and recent investment: the commission increased its street rehabilitation budget in recent years and Mansfield said year-over-year funding adjustments ranged from roughly 14% to 37% in some cases.

Mansfield also described how inspections are done and where the public can find maps: inspectors record roughly 20 distress types per sample area and the city maintains a GIS view of planned work on its website; recently completed projects (for example, work around Noble Park) will be reflected in the 2026 reinspections.

City leaders and the consultant framed the 2026 full reinspection as a milestone that will provide two full points of comparison with the original 2018 survey and help the city better target limited contractor capacity during the construction season. No formal vote or motion occurred during the presentation; the item was informational and closed after questions and remarks from commissioners and staff.

Next steps: staff and BFW will complete the 2026 100% reinspection cycle and update the city's rehabilitation plan and project list based on the new PCI results.