Total Bridges
623,216
Tracked in the FHWA NBI
FHWA National Bridge Inventory · 623,216 bridges · 6.8% in Poor condition
What did the latest
inspection record?
Condition ratings, load ratings, and Poor-condition data for 623,216 public highway bridges. Searchable by state, county, and span. According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory. Not a live crossing-safety verdict.
- Bridges
- 623,216
- Good
- 44%
- Fair
- 49%
- Poor
- 6.8%
Poor-condition share share of each state's bridges rated poor
See all states & territories → The short answer
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
42,080 of 623,216 public highway bridges are rated Poor, about 1 in 15 nationally, while Iowa's inventory carries a 2.8× higher Poor share among states with 1,000+ bridges.
- 3×
- Iowa highest Poor share vs the national average
- 65 yrs
- Hawaii average bridge age
- 26,315
- Average daily crossings on California bridges
- 44.1%
- National bridges rated Good (7–9 on the NBI scale)
A bridge is rated Poor when the lowest of its applicable deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert ratings is 4 or below on the inspecting agency's 0-9 scale. That category is a maintenance and funding signal, not a closure order or a live crossing-safety verdict. PlainBridges reports each rating exactly as the agency submitted it to the FHWA.
National Bridge Condition
Good Condition
44.1%
274,858 bridges rated 7-9
Fair Condition
49.1%
306,278 bridges rated 5-6
Poor Condition
6.8%
42,080 bridges with an element rated 4 or below
2024 NBI release
National Condition Distribution
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory · 42,080 bridges in Poor condition
State-by-state Poor-condition strip
Each tick = one US state, sorted from lowest to highest Poor-condition share. Burnt-sienna marks states above the national average.
Bridge volume vs. condition, by state
A state with the most bridges is not necessarily the state with the worst share of them in Poor condition, and a small state can carry a heavy Poor-condition rate while barely registering by raw count. This splits the two apart.
Bridges Needing Most Attention
View rankings →Bridges in Poor condition nationally, ordered by their NBI inventory load rating, the lowest-rated, most load-restricted spans first.
IRR BIA RTE 1026
PoorOver: UNNAMED CREEK
0.5 MI. N OF WINDY BAY RD, Kenai Peninsula, AK
Built 1997 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 10
IRR BIA RTE 1026
PoorOver: UNNAMED CREED
0.8 MI N OF WINDY BAY RD., Kenai Peninsula, AK
Built 1997 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 10
IRR BIA RTE 8PGH
PoorOver: UNNAMED CREEK
14.5 Mi SE of Port Graham, Kenai Peninsula, AK
Built 1997 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 5
IRR BIA RTE 8PGH
PoorOver: UNNAMED CREEK
15.4 Mi SE of Port Graha, Kenai Peninsula, AK
Built 1997 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 5
IRR BIA RTE 1045
PoorOver: UNNAMED STREAM
0.2KM NW OF BARGE LANDING, Bethel, AK
Built 1980 Load: 0.0 t
IRR BIA RTE 002
PoorOver: UNNAMED STREAM
NUIQSUT, North Slope, AK
Built 1980 Load: 0.0 t
NUC CIRCLE ROAD
PoorOver: CREEK
On Blair Lake Range. Con, Fairbanks North Star, AK
Built 1998 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 10
IRR BIA RTE 735
PoorOver: SUKKWAN STRAIT
3.0 MILES EAST OF HYDABUR, Prince of Wales-Hyder, AK
Built 1970 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 5
COUNTRY CLUB ROAD
PoorOver: BLACKWATER CREEK
1 MILE EAST HWY 195, Walker, AL
Built 1898 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 400
KINGS MILL ROAD
PoorOver: LOST CREEK
1 MILE N OAKMAN HWY, Walker, AL
Built 1900 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 150
Browse by State
All states →AL
Alabama
3.4% Poor
AK
Alaska
7.9% Poor
AZ
Arizona
1.1% Poor
AR
Arkansas
5.4% Poor
CA
California
5.9% Poor
CO
Colorado
4.8% Poor
CT
Connecticut
4.7% Poor
DE
Delaware
1.3% Poor
DC
District of Columbia
1.9% Poor
FL
Florida
2.8% Poor
GA
Georgia
1.6% Poor
GU
Guam
12.8% Poor
HI
Hawaii
6.5% Poor
ID
Idaho
4.9% Poor
IL
Illinois
9.3% Poor
IN
Indiana
5.2% Poor
IA
Iowa
19.2% Poor
KS
Kansas
5.3% Poor
KY
Kentucky
7.4% Poor
LA
Louisiana
11.5% Poor
ME
Maine
15.4% Poor
MD
Maryland
4.6% Poor
MA
Massachusetts
8.9% Poor
MI
Michigan
11.3% Poor
MN
Minnesota
4.4% Poor
MS
Mississippi
6.0% Poor
MO
Missouri
8.9% Poor
MT
Montana
6.8% Poor
NE
Nebraska
7.9% Poor
NV
Nevada
1.1% Poor
NH
New Hampshire
7.5% Poor
NJ
New Jersey
6.0% Poor
NM
New Mexico
4.5% Poor
NY
New York
9.4% Poor
NC
North Carolina
6.8% Poor
ND
North Dakota
11.0% Poor
OH
Ohio
4.7% Poor
OK
Oklahoma
7.7% Poor
OR
Oregon
4.6% Poor
PA
Pennsylvania
12.6% Poor
PR
Puerto Rico
13.9% Poor
RI
Rhode Island
15.2% Poor
SC
South Carolina
6.2% Poor
SD
South Dakota
16.4% Poor
TN
Tennessee
4.4% Poor
TX
Texas
1.2% Poor
UT
Utah
2.9% Poor
VT
Vermont
2.9% Poor
VI
Virgin Islands
29.2% Poor
VA
Virginia
3.4% Poor
WA
Washington
5.5% Poor
WV
West Virginia
18.6% Poor
WI
Wisconsin
6.5% Poor
WY
Wyoming
6.5% Poor
Bridge Safety Guides
Poor-Condition Bridges
How FHWA reports bridge condition today, and what the retired “structurally deficient” term meant
Bridge Safety Ratings Explained
Understanding NBI condition ratings, load ratings, and what they mean for drivers
How to Report an Unsafe Bridge
Step-by-step guide for reporting bridge concerns to your state DOT
Related Guides
Editorial context for the plainbridges dataset, methodology, comparisons, and deep dives into the underlying records.
How to read NBI condition data
Bridge inspectors rate three primary elements, deck, superstructure, and substructure, on a 0–9 scale. The Good / Fair / Poor condition category and geographic rollups are derived from those element ratings plus a sufficiency rating that factors in functional adequacy. The links below open the relevant guide pages on this site, all written and reviewed by PlainBridges.
Guide
NBI condition ratings explained
What the 0–9 scale measures, how the Good / Fair / Poor categories are derived, and how PlainBridges computes the sufficiency rating.
GuideWhy older reports say “structurally deficient”
FHWA retired the status beginning with the 2018 archive. Current reporting calls a lowest applicable component rating of 4 or below Poor condition.
MethodOur data methodology
Source files, refresh cadence, sufficiency-rating formula, and the limits of the federal NBI dataset.
About this data
How PlainBridges works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainBridges covers 623,216 public highway bridges across all 50 states plus territories, sourced entirely from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) National Bridge Inventory (NBI), the federal database mandated by Congress since 1968 following the Silver Bridge collapse. Every public highway bridge over 20 feet in the U.S. is required to be inspected and reported to the NBI, and PlainBridges presents that data without modification.
Editorial process
- Source. Download the annual NBI dataset directly from FHWA and parse all 116 standardized data items per bridge, including condition ratings, structural details, traffic counts, and geographic data.
- Verify. Apply the current Good/Fair/Poor thresholds and label every derived value; where PlainBridges recomputes the discontinued sufficiency-rating composite, it is historical context only and is left blank when an input is missing.
- Publish. Update the database each spring when FHWA releases the new annual NBI dataset, and organize the records into searchable pages by bridge, county, and state.
Editorial independence & corrections
PlainBridges presents FHWA data without modification; condition ratings, inventory load ratings, and structural classifications are displayed exactly as reported in the NBI. Found a figure that looks wrong? Reach us at hello@plainbridges.com or through the contact page and we will verify against the NBI source data. See our methodology for the full condition-rating and sufficiency-rating calculation approach.
Frequently asked
What does "structurally deficient" mean in older reports?
FHWA eliminated Structurally Deficient as a reported status beginning with the 2018 archive. Current reporting uses Poor condition when the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below. Poor condition is not a live crossing or closure decision.
Where does this data come from?
The reported fields come from the Federal Highway Administration National Bridge Inventory. Agencies inspect bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data annually; PlainBridges documents and labels its derived categories and rollups.
How are bridge conditions rated?
Bridge inspectors rate applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, and culvert components on a 0–9 scale. The lowest applicable rating determines the current category: 7–9 Good, 5–6 Fair, and 0–4 Poor. PlainBridges shows a separately labeled historical sufficiency reference, but FHWA discontinued that calculated item and it does not determine current condition.
Is this free to use?
Yes. PlainBridges is completely free to use, ad-supported. All bridge data from the NBI is public domain US government data.
What to do with this
Use the national Poor-share picture to pick a state, then drill to the span.
- Open the state rankings by Poor-condition share and find your state's place. State rankings
- Look up a specific structure by NBI identity or feature carried. Bridge lookup
- Compare any two states on the same NBI condition measures. State compare
NBI condition ratings are inventory snapshots, not live crossing-safety verdicts. Confirm with the owning agency before any travel decision.
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. National Good/Fair/Poor shares and state ranks on this page are computed from the same NBI extract shown above; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2024 NBI release. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.