KINGSTON — September 22, 2026 — Bringing Kingston’s 75 miles of roads and 28 miles of sidewalks to a pavement condition index of about 75 would cost roughly $17 million, the highway superintendent told the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, a figure from the town’s own pavement scanning data and set against local paving money of about $1 million a year without grants.
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The figure came out of a joint highway and planning presentation on the assessment program Kingston has used for nine years. The vendor, CityLogix, has scanned the town’s 75 miles of roads three times, most recently from late 2025 into early 2026, using a car carrying LiDAR equipment and 360-degree cameras. This year it added the 28 miles of sidewalks, covered on an e-scooter fitted with cameras.
Every road and sidewalk segment gets a condition index score from zero to 100, and the results load into a web mapping platform the highway department uses to choose between milling and overlay, overlay alone and crack sealing. The platform also prices the whole backlog.
“And to bring the PCI up to about a 75, it’s about $17 million for the town of Kingston,” said Shawn Turner, Highway Superintendent. Town Planner Valerie Massard said Kingston does not have it.
The scores also set the order of work, and Turner said they answer the recurring suspicion that paving follows addresses rather than pavement. Parting Ways Road scored a 45 and is being milled and paved now, which will lift it to 90; South Street scored 33; and Pine Street was milled the day of the meeting. It scored 33 as well. About seven and a half miles of roadway was crack sealed this year, and the department plans to put the map on the town website so residents can see conditions and updates for themselves.
Grants carry the rest. A shared streets grant will pay for squaring up the Grove Street intersection with safer crosswalks and for reworking the library entrance, removing the island that makes the turn difficult, with construction starting within a couple of weeks. Sidewalks on the failing side of Green Street opposite the library follow next year. The planning office has filed three or four applications for Exit 20 design funding and is coordinating with MassDOT, which will begin paving Main Street out to the town line in the spring, so the town’s own Main Street improvements can go in ahead of the pavement. MassDOT also took on milling and repairing the Independence Mall entrance after a two- or three-year push and a dispute over whether the road was state or local. A three-year and five-year roadway and sidewalk plan is due back to the board in the spring or summer.
