Cape Ann roads: pavement ratings, crashes, projects and spending
Preview: not on the live site. Records marked preview await editor approval.
One package behind the Current's road safety series: MassDOT's 2025 pavement ratings for every state numbered route in Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea; a report card for each town's top crash roads (crashes since 2023, rating, owner, funded fix); every road project we found in town and state records since 2023; road money voted or awarded 2024 to 2026; every Gloucester street with its accepted or private status and, where MassDOT records it, the year last improved; and Gloucester SeeClickFix road reports counted by street.
- Type
- Dataset (downloadable files)
- Towns
- Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea
- Topics
- Roads, Public safety, Budgets, Transportation
- Geographic coverage
- Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea
- Time coverage
- Crashes Jan. 2023 to Sept. 2026; pavement ratings 2025; projects and spending 2023 to 2026; SeeClickFix Nov. 21, 2025 to Oct. 15, 2026; road inventory 2024
- Version
- Data release 0.1.0
- Last released
- 2026-10-16
- Expected updates
- Pavement and inventory yearly when MassDOT publishes; projects and spending when a town votes; SeeClickFix about monthly
- Rights
- Public state and town records and public reports, with the Current's own joins, counts and plain words summaries, offered under our Free Access and Attribution Policy.
- Policy
- Cape Ann Current Free Access and Attribution Policy, version 1.0
Preview of the data
First 8 rows of the pavement_2025 table (634 rows in all), first 6 columns.
| town | route | street | from_mile | to_mile | miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essex | SR128 | Yankee Division Highway | 51.446 | 51.446 | 0.0 |
| Essex | SR128 | Yankee Division Highway | 51.446 | 51.542 | 0.096 |
| Essex | SR128 | Yankee Division Highway | 51.542 | 51.61 | 0.068 |
| Essex | SR128 | Yankee Division Highway | 6.075 | 6.1 | 0.025 |
| Essex | SR128 | Yankee Division Highway | 6.1 | 6.2 | 0.1 |
| Essex | SR128 | Yankee Division Highway | 6.2 | 6.265 | 0.065 |
| Essex | SR133 | John Wise Avenue | 31.976 | 32.0 | 0.024 |
| Essex | SR133 | John Wise Avenue | 32.0 | 32.1 | 0.1 |
Download
Single CSV tables
- pavement_2025.csv (634 rows)
- roads.csv (24 rows)
- projects.csv (32 rows)
- spending.csv (25 rows)
- gloucester_streets.csv (878 rows)
- seeclickfix_streets.csv (448 rows)
- inventory.csv (4 rows)
- sources.csv (9 rows)
Each CSV is plain UTF-8 with one header row. Missing values are empty cells. Read README.txt for the fields and NOTICE.txt for credit and source rules; both are in the ZIP.
Stable addresses
- Always the newest release:
https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/cape-ann-roads/latest/cape-ann-roads.json - Fixed version 0.1.0:
https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/cape-ann-roads/0.1.0/cape-ann-roads.json
These are static files. There is no API, key or account. Files are cached for up to an hour; please download once and reuse your copy rather than fetching on every page view.
How to credit
Every public use, including on government websites, must show this credit near the reused material, with a clickable link to this page:
Source: Cape Ann Current. Link: https://capeanncurrent.com/data-tools/cape-ann-roads/
If you change it: Adapted from Cape Ann Current. Changes made by [organization name].
A credit only in metadata, code, a tooltip or a site footer does not count. Read the Free Access and Attribution Policy.
Methodology
Pavement: MassDOT's Non Interstate Pavement Condition layer (PSI and IRI, 2025 test year), cut by town, street and owner with the Road Inventory town, street name and jurisdiction layers; MassDOT's scale is 3.5 and up excellent, 2.8 to 3.5 good, 2.3 to 2.8 fair, under 2.3 poor. Crashes: police crash reports compiled by MassDOT, counted by the road named in the report; no fatal crash is included. Projects and spending: read from town meeting, select board, city council and public works minutes in the Current's Public Meeting Archive and from MassDOT's project database; each row names its source. Gloucester streets: MassDOT Road Inventory jurisdiction code 0 (unaccepted by city or town) is shown as private way, code 2 as city accepted, code 1 as MassDOT; year last improved is MassDOT's own field and is blank for most streets. SeeClickFix: the newest 2,500 public reports on Gloucester's portal, counted by the street in each report's address; nine road related request types. Reporter names and report text are never kept.
Definitions
- condition
- MassDOT pavement rating from PSI: Excellent, Good, Fair or Poor.
- psi
- Present Serviceability Index, 0 to 5, MassDOT's ride and distress score.
- iri
- International Roughness Index, inches per mile; higher is rougher.
- fix status
- funded: money voted or awarded for this road. design: in design or on a plan with no construction money. discussed: raised at a meeting, nothing funded. none: nothing in the records since 2025.
- status (projects)
- done, funded, design, study or discussed, as of Oct. 2026.
- year last improved massdot
- MassDOT's recorded year of last improvement for the segment. Blank means MassDOT has no record, not that the street was never paved.
- road reports
- SeeClickFix reports in the nine road related request types: potholes, other road issues, sidewalks, street lights, manhole covers, street signs, crosswalks, storm drains and traffic signals.
Limitations
- Only state numbered routes carry a MassDOT pavement rating. Local streets are not rated by the state.
- Crash records for 2024 and later are preliminary and still arriving; the state says they are subject to change.
- Projects and spending come from the minutes the Current holds (2024 to Oct. 2026). The 2024 Rockport town meeting is not in that archive. Chapter 90 state aid is not itemized by street.
- SeeClickFix's public API returns only the newest 2,500 reports, so the Gloucester window starts Nov. 21, 2025, not when the city began using the service. Rockport's portal (423 reports since mid 2025) is counted too; Essex and Manchester do not use it.
- A street listed as unaccepted in MassDOT's inventory may be accepted in city records, or the reverse; the city's own street list (Jan. 11, 2023) is the legal reference and the status column follows it where it was read. 25 streets differ between the two; both columns are given.
- Last paved on record covers only city votes and records the Current verified plus reader reports after checking; a blank means no record, not that the street was never paved.
Sources and their rules
Our policy and each source's own conditions both apply. Where they differ, the source's conditions govern the source's material. Underlying facts are not owned by anyone; we never claim them.
| Source | Rights and terms | Required source credit | Not covered by our policy | Retrieved / rights reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pavement Condition Viewer (Non Interstate Pavement Condition layer) Massachusetts Department of Transportation | public record State pavement condition data published through MassDOT's public ArcGIS services. | MassDOT | Do not present the Current's town and street cut as MassDOT's own product. | 2026-10-16 2026-10-16 |
| Road Inventory (jurisdiction, street names, functional class, year last improved) and 2024 Year End Report Massachusetts Department of Transportation | public record The state's official road inventory, published as open GIS services and a yearly PDF report. | MassDOT Road Inventory | Unaccepted in the inventory is not a legal finding of private status; the city's street list is the legal reference. | 2026-10-16 2026-10-16 |
| Crash Data Portal (police crash reports) Massachusetts Department of Transportation | public record Public crash records; 2024 and later preliminary. Under federal law (23 USC 407) the data cannot be used as evidence in court cases over a crash. | MassDOT Crash Data Portal | No fatal crash is included in the Current's files; do not add names or private details. | 2026-10-02 2026-10-16 |
| Project Info database and Highway Projects map layer Massachusetts Department of Transportation | public record Public project records: status, estimates and schedules, which change often. | MassDOT Project Info | Estimates and dates are as of the retrieval date; say so. | 2026-10-16 2026-10-16 |
| City of Gloucester public SeeClickFix reports (public API) City of Gloucester, Mass., via SeeClickFix (CivicPlus) | facts only Public service requests residents file with the city. The Current keeps counts by street and request type only. | City of Gloucester SeeClickFix | Never republish report text, photos, reporter names or exact addresses. | 2026-10-16 not yet |
| Town of Rockport public SeeClickFix reports (public API) Town of Rockport, Mass., via SeeClickFix (CivicPlus) | facts only Public service requests residents file with the town. The Current keeps counts by street and request type only. | Town of Rockport SeeClickFix | Never republish report text, photos, reporter names or exact addresses. | 2026-10-16 2026-10-16 |
| City of Gloucester street list, public and private status by segment, Jan. 11, 2023 City of Gloucester, Mass., City Clerk and Department of Public Works | public record The city's own list of every street with MUNICIPAL or PRIVATE status and the limits of each section. Read by OCR from the city's scan; about half the rows read cleanly, the rest show MassDOT status only. | City of Gloucester street list, Jan. 11, 2023 | None stated | 2026-10-16 not yet |
| Agenda center, minutes and meeting calendar City of Gloucester, Mass. | public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the city's own copies. | City of Gloucester | Our policy does not cover the city's documents themselves; link to the city's copies. | 2026-10-08 2026-10-08 |
| Agendas, minutes and meeting calendar Town of Rockport, Mass. | public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the town's own copies. | Town of Rockport | Our policy does not cover the town's documents themselves; link to the town's copies. | 2026-10-08 2026-10-08 |
| Agendas, minutes and meeting calendar Town of Essex, Mass. | public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the town's own copies. | Town of Essex | Our policy does not cover the town's documents themselves; link to the town's copies. | 2026-10-08 2026-10-08 |
| Agenda center, minutes and meeting calendar Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass. | public record Public meeting notices and records under the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law. We publish facts and link to the town's own copies. | Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea | Our policy does not cover the town's documents themselves; link to the town's copies. | 2026-10-08 2026-10-08 |
Restricted components
SeeClickFix report text, photos and reporter names are not included.
Rights and reuse
Public state and town records and public reports, with the Current's own joins, counts and plain words summaries, offered under our Free Access and Attribution Policy.
Free under our Free Access and Attribution Policy for websites, businesses, news organizations, government agencies, schools, libraries and nonprofits whose website or publication does not run a paywall for news or informational content. School systems that require logins for student privacy qualify.
Report a correction
See an error or have a record that adds to this? Send a correction or email [email protected].