County profile · official public datasets

Chugach County, AK

66 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.4% rated Good, 53% Fair, 7.6% Poor.

66
Public bridges: 39.4%
Good condition: 7.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Chugach County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

16th
of 27 on Poor share: 7.6%
Poor-condition share: 66
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Chugach County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Chugach County ranks #16 of 27 Alaska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.6%). Chugach County, Alaska contains 66 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.4% are rated “Good,” 53% “Fair,” and 7.6% “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

Public highway bridges in Chugach County

Good condition

39.4%

26 of 66 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53%

35 of 66 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.6%

5 of 66 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#16 of 27

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

Condition distribution

Share of 66 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

39.4% (26)

Fair

53% (35)

Poor

7.6% (5)

Chugach County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,755 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 351 crossings a day against 540 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 66 of 66 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

37.9% of Chugach County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

25 of the 66 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 39.4% 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 63.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COPPER RIVER HWY over EYAK RIVER, built 1954, carries 1,110 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,755 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1930s

1
1940s

1
1950s

1
1960s

16
1970s

14
1980s

9
1990s

5
2000s

10
2010s

5
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 6 years older than the Alaska average of 1989.

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

The 5 Alaska counties nearest Chugach County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.6% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1982 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Chugach County and the 5 Alaska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Yukon-Koyukuk County	94	41.5%	50%	8.5%	1978
Chugach County (this page)	66	39.4%	53%	7.6%	1983
Southeast Fairbanks County	64	32.8%	54.7%	12.5%	1980
Wrangell City and County	58	44.8%	48.3%	6.9%	1990
Copper River County	52	46.2%	48.1%	5.8%	1984
Juneau City and County	47	36.2%	61.7%	2.1%	1978

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 Chugach 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 Chugach County, both outside Alaska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AK (66 bridges here).

Inyo County, CA · 66 bridges
Broomfield County, CO · 66 bridges
Cook County, GA · 66 bridges
Greene County, GA · 66 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AK (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 66 Good 26 Fair 35 Poor 5

All bridges (66)

Sort:

Chugach County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Chugach County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,755 vehicle crossings a day

37.9% of Chugach County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 63.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Chugach 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

All bridges (66)

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

POINT WHITSHED RD

MARINE HWY ROUTE

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

COPPER RIVER HWY

FRONT STREET

FERRY TERMINAL RD

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

IRR: AIRPORT RD

IRR:CHENEGA RD

MARINE HWY ROUTE

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

IRR:MARINE HWY RTE

COPPER RIVER HWY

IRR:MARINE HWY RTE

IRR:MARINE HWY RTE

SHERIDAN GLCR ROAD

COPPER RIVER HWY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

SHOTGUN COVE ROAD

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

COPPER RIVER HWY

EGAN DRIVE

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

COPPER RIVER HWY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

DAYVILLE ROAD

DAYVILLE ROAD

DAYVILLE ROAD

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