If Richmond’s roads seem like they’re in better shape than they used to be, it’s not your imagination.

City streets have improved dramatically since 2018, when just 35% got good or satisfactory ratings under a standard road-quality metric called the Pavement Condition Index.

Today — after significant budget increases for paving —  75% of Richmond’s roads are rated in good or satisfactory condition, according to data from the city’s Department of Public Works.

View a map of road quality scores here.

“It’s the best shape that they’ve been in for quite some time,” said DPW Director Bobby Vincent, who’s been with the city for more than three decades.

Several factors contributed to the improvement, Vincent explained in an interview.

Money was a big one. City funding for paving was once a few million dollars a year. But in response to complaints about pothole-riddled streets, Vincent said, former Mayor Levar Stoney made a deliberate effort to increase that funding, bumping it to around $15 million annually.

“He kind of gave me the go-ahead,” Vincent said of the former mayor. “He said, ‘Hey look, you said you need $15 million a year. I'm going to give it to you. Can you spend it?’”

Road paving was important enough to Stoney he mentioned it several times during his farewell tour last year as he prepared to leave office after eight years as mayor. In his final speech at City Hall, Stoney mentioned improved road conditions as one of the “clear signs” some things got better under his watch.

“1,200 lane miles of roads paved,” Stoney said as he ticked off paving stats in his farewell address. “$112 million spent well in neighborhoods throughout the city.”

The city has also gotten more efficient in how it contracts out for paving work. Instead of putting paving bids out to resurface a few blocks at a time, Vincent said, contractors are often now hired to do entire neighborhoods, resulting in better prices for the city.