Gillette’s engineering division prepares for 2026 road examinations
GILLETTE (WNE) – Contractors have begun gathering information on a number of city streets to help guide the city engineering division as they lay out repair and replacement projects over the next five years.
City Engineer Joe Schoen presented last week to the Gillette City Council on the city’s PAVER system, which keeps city staff up to date on the current health of the city’s roads and an estimate on their remaining lifespan.
Gillette’s streets are collected into three zones, and each street is formally examined for damage every three years and assigned a pavement condition index (PCI) value.
The city uses these results and predicted PCI values to prioritize upcoming repair and replacement projects, meant to keep streets in a fair condition in a cost-effective way.
“That’s really the ultimate idea with maintenance, otherwise, your idea is to reconstruct everything,” Schoen said. “Who doesn’t want a brand new street every single year? The problem is no one can financially afford that, so with that in mind, we’re kind of looking at how we select to get that life out of the streets with less cost.”
The city spends $6-7 million in road repair costs each year. Schoen said this relatively low number was due to a focus on road life-extension projects. The city has held off on full replacements until the damage begins to drastically affect road quality.
This story was published on August 8, 2026.
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