Marshall County road ratings outpace regional average

Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 4:00 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

2-18-26 Wednesday News 4 A.M. E-7

Marshall County's road conditions continue to improve while neighboring counties see declining ratings, according to a report presented Monday by County Commissioner Jesse Bohannon.

Bohannon compared Marshall County's PASER (Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating) ratings with the other three counties in MACOG (Michiana Area Council of Governments) — St. Joseph, Elkhart, and Kosciusko counties.

"If you look at the road condition ratings for the other three MACOG counties, their PASER ratings have gone down over the last several years, and ours have gone up," Bohannon said. Marshall County's ratings are above the state average, with a score between 6.3 and 6.5.

Despite Marshall County's improvements, MACOG's overall ratings have declined. "Even though Marshall County's ratings have gone up, MACOG's ratings as a unit have gone down, but our county is pulling that average up," Bohannon noted.

The commissioner asked Highway Superintendent Jason Peters to convey the commissioners' appreciation to the road crews for their hard work.

According to MACOG's rating system, roads are color-coded on maps: green for good conditions, yellow for fair, and red for poor. Within the four-county region, 28% of roads are rated good, 41% are rated fair, and 31% are rated poor.

The PASER rating system evaluates pavement surface conditions on a scale of 1 to 10, with higher numbers indicating better road conditions.

Link to map:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/adb7665c148c41d2bf5bce1898599b00