County profile · official public datasets

Anchorage County, AK

134 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 49.3% rated Good, 50% Fair, 0.7% Poor.

134
Public bridges: 49.3%
Good condition: 0.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Anchorage County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 11%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.7%
Poor-condition share: 134
public highway bridges: 1992
avg year built

Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.

Anchorage County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Anchorage County ranks #3 of 27 Alaska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.7%). Anchorage County, Alaska contains 134 public highway bridges. Roughly 49.3% are rated “Good,” 50% “Fair,” and 0.7% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.

Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.

Total bridges

134

Public highway bridges in Anchorage County

Good condition

49.3%

66 of 134 rated 7-9

Fair condition

50%

67 of 134 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.7%

1 of 134 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#3 of 27

Among Alaska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 134 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

49.3% (66)

Fair

50% (67)

Poor

0.7% (1)

Anchorage County's Poor-condition bridges carry 50 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 50 crossings a day against 9,132 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.

Computed over the 134 of 134 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

16.4% of Anchorage County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

22 of the 134 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 49.3% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.

Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

STARNER ROAD over PETERS CREEK, built 1989, carries 50 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 50 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1950s

2
1960s

11
1970s

26
1980s

27
1990s

20
2000s

22
2010s

18
2020s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 27 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1992) matches the Alaska average (1989).

How Anchorage County compares with Alaska's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Alaska counties nearest Anchorage County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1992 against a peer-group mean of 1991 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 26 Alaska counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Anchorage County and the 5 Alaska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Petersburg County	141	44.7%	47.5%	7.8%	1992
Anchorage County (this page)	134	49.3%	50%	0.7%	1992
Hoonah-Angoon County	125	49.6%	35.2%	15.2%	1994
Matanuska-Susitna County	120	50.8%	43.3%	5.8%	1993
Fairbanks North Star County	111	50.5%	42.3%	7.2%	1988
Kenai Peninsula County	103	35.9%	50.5%	13.6%	1988

Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Anchorage County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Two NBI-derived peer sets for Anchorage County, both outside Alaska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AK (134 bridges here).

Knott County, KY · 134 bridges
Murray County, MN · 134 bridges
Steele County, MN · 134 bridges
Lawrence County, MS · 134 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AK (1992 here).

Johnson County, KS · avg 1992 · 781 bridges
Wake County, NC · avg 1992 · 760 bridges
Benton County, AR · avg 1992 · 410 bridges
Nodaway County, MO · avg 1992 · 396 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 134 Good 66 Fair 67 Poor 1

Fair-condition bridges (67)

Sort:

Anchorage County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Anchorage County's Poor-condition bridges carry 50 vehicle crossings a day

16.4% of Anchorage County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Anchorage County compares with Alaska's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (67)

POLE LINE ROAD

ANCH INTL AIRPORT

ANCH INTL AIRPORT

VANDENBERG AVENUE

REEVE BLVD

SEWARD HIGHWAY

ALYESKA HIGHWAY

BONIFACE PARKWAY

EKLUTNA VILLAGE RD

DIMOND BLVD

MINN DR S.B.

MINN DR N.B.

SEWARD HIGHWAY

INTL AIRPORT RD

TUDOR ROAD

MIRROR LAKE ROAD

INTL AIRPORT RD

GLENN HIGHWAY

EAGLE RIVER LOOP

GLENN HIGHWAY

GLENN HIGHWAY

ARCTIC BLVD

ALYESKA HIGHWAY

CROW CREEK ROAD

15TH AVENUE

NORTH C

A ST

LOOP RD/C STREET

DIMND-MINN ON-RAMP

GLENN HIGHWAY

GLENN HIGHWAY

ARCTIC VALLEY ROAD

DIMOND BLVD

MINN DR S.B.

GLENN HIGHWAY

GLENN HIGHWAY

VFW ROAD

DIMOND DRIVE

BRAVO ROUTE

SPENARD ROAD

PORTAGE GLACIER RD

LAKE OTIS ROAD

SEWARD HIGHWAY

PORTAGE GLACIER RD

OLD SEWARD HIGHWAY

C STREET

PORTAGE GLACIER RD

GLENN HIGHWAY

EAGLE RIVER LOOP

MINNESOTA DRIVE

Related