Total bridges
66
Public highway bridges in Chugach County
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.
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.
When Chugach County's bridges were built
66 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
16 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
14 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s 5
1990–1999
5 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
10 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
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.
| 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 bridges (66)
SHOTGUN COVE ROAD
GoodOver: COVE CREEK 2
MILE POINT 0.5 (WHITTIER), Chugach, AK
Built 2008 Load: 40.4 t ADT: 50
RICHARDSON HIGHWAY
GoodOver: VALDEZ GLACIER STREAM
MILE POINT 4.8, Chugach, AK
Built 1965 Load: 45.5 t ADT: 1,990
DAYVILLE ROAD
GoodOver: SOLOMON CREEK
MILE POINT 3.8, Chugach, AK
Built 2005 Load: 49.2 t ADT: 1,330
CAMP ROAD
GoodOver: WHITTIER CREEK
MILE POINT 1.3, Chugach, AK
Built 1999 Load: 49.4 t ADT: 590
DAYVILLE ROAD
GoodOver: ABERCROMBIE CREEK
MILE POINT 1.5, Chugach, AK
Built 2005 Load: 50.0 t ADT: 1,330
COPPER RIVER HWY
GoodOver: MID FORK 18 MILE CREEK
MILE POINT 18.2, Chugach, AK
Built 2021 Load: 52.6 t ADT: 170
DENALI HIGHWAY
GoodOver: ROCK CREEK
MILE POINT 24.8, Chugach, AK
Built 2021 Load: 55.9 t ADT: 40
SHOTGUN COVE ROAD
GoodOver: SECOND SALMON RUN E FORK
MILE POINT 7.1, Chugach, AK
Built 2016 Load: 58.2 t ADT: 50
PT WHITSHED RD EXT
GoodOver: NO NAME CREEK
MILE POINT 6.2, Chugach, AK
Built 2012 Load: 60.6 t ADT: 50
COPPER RIVER HWY
GoodOver: EAST FORK 18 MILE CREEK
MILE POINT 18.7, Chugach, AK
Built 2021 Load: 81.0 t ADT: 170
POINT WHITSHED RD
GoodOver: ECCLES CREEK
MILE POINT 1.0, Chugach, AK
Built 2012 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 440
MINERAL CREEK ROAD
PoorOver: MINERAL CREEK
MILE POINT 0.3, Chugach, AK
Built 1970 Load: 5.7 t ADT: 75
POINT WHITSHED RD
PoorOver: HENEY CREEK
MILE POINT 1.8, Chugach, AK
Built 1936 Load: 18.7 t ADT: 440
COPPER RIVER HWY
PoorOver: MILLION DOLLAR BRIDGE
MILE POINT 48.8, Chugach, AK
Built 1910 Load: 23.2 t ADT: 65
COPPER RIVER HWY
PoorOver: EYAK RIVER
MILE POINT 5.7, Chugach, AK
Built 1954 Load: 24.9 t ADT: 1,110
COPPER RIVER HWY
PoorOver: COPPER DELTA
MILE POINT 36.2, Chugach, AK
Built 1977 Load: 32.1 t ADT: 65
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.