This Fig Garden road was voted most in need of fixes in Fresno. Is help on the way?

Fresno Bee readers have spoken, and they say West Shaw Avenue is the city’s road most in need of improvement.

The prominent, high-traffic commercial corridor was voted the top pick of the city’s 1,800-mile street network by a substantial amount in a survey published by The Fresno Bee in August.

Readers cited potholes and cracked pavement, making for a rough, bumpy drive, particularly in areas west of Blackstone and around Fig Garden Village. West Shaw Avenue spans roughly five to six miles from Highway 99 to its developed end near Grantland Avenue.

Fresno’s road system as a whole has an average rating of 60 on a 100-point scale, which is considered “fair” or “at-risk” on the Pavement Condition Index (PCI). In addition, the city faces $1.2 billion in deferred maintenance on local roads.

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer’s administration does have a plan in action to invest $100 million into local streets through its “Pave More Now” initiative, including some segments of Shaw Avenue as a whole, which spans roughly 12 to 14 miles from its western stretches near Highway 99 all the way out toward the Clovis border and eastern areas.

0.7-mile stretch of West Shaw Avenue to be repaved

The City Council recently approved $1.6 million for additional repaving and accessibility upgrades for a 0.7-mile stretch of Shaw Avenue between Fruit and Palm Avenues, with construction scheduled for Fall 2026.

The project will repave Shaw Avenue in both directions, “creating a smoother, safer ride for thousands of motorists who travel the corridor each day,” the city said in a July press release.

“Shaw Avenue is one of Fresno’s busiest corridors, and people have been waiting to see this stretch get repaved,” Dyer said in a statement when the project was announced.

Additional improvements include new curb ramps, updated roadway signage and fresh striping.

Some readers said it’s not enough.

“Though it is getting repaved, we don’t need a section of West Shaw but the whole entire road,” one Bee reader wrote. “All of West Shaw.”

There are a number of other roads part of the “Pave More Now” initiative, like McKinley Avenue, Shields Avenue, and First Street.

City crews also completed repaving and grinding work along the commercial stretch on Shaw Avenue between Blythe and Valentine avenues in October 2025.