County profile · official public datasets

Copper River County, AK

52 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 46.2% rated Good, 48.1% Fair, 5.8% Poor.

52
Public bridges: 46.2%
Good condition: 5.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 30%
lowest Poor share in state: 5.8%
Poor-condition share: 52
public highway bridges: 1984
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.

Copper River County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Copper River County ranks #8 of 27 Alaska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.8%). Copper River County, Alaska contains 52 public highway bridges. Roughly 46.2% are rated “Good,” 48.1% “Fair,” and 5.8% “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 Copper River County

Good condition

46.2%

24 of 52 rated 7-9

Fair condition

48.1%

25 of 52 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.8%

3 of 52 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#8 of 27

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

Condition distribution

Share of 52 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

46.2% (24)

Fair

48.1% (25)

Poor

5.8% (3)

Copper River County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,416 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 472 crossings a day against 293 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 52 of 52 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

40.4% of Copper River County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

21 of the 52 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 46.2% 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 62.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY over GULKANA RIVER, built 1974, carries 880 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,416 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1950s

8
1960s

5
1970s

12
1980s

6
1990s

3
2000s

7
2010s

7
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 12 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1984, 5 years older than the Alaska average of 1989.

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

The 5 Alaska counties nearest Copper River County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1984 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Copper River County and the 5 Alaska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chugach County	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 (this page)	52	46.2%	48.1%	5.8%	1984
Juneau City and County	47	36.2%	61.7%	2.1%	1978
Sitka City and County	37	45.9%	51.4%	2.7%	1989

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AK (52 bridges here).

McDuffie County, GA · 52 bridges
Terrell County, GA · 52 bridges
Tensas County, LA · 52 bridges
Cass County, MI · 52 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AK (1984 here).

Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges

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

All 52 Good 24 Fair 25 Poor 3

All bridges (52)

Sort:

Copper River County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Copper River County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,416 vehicle crossings a day

40.4% of Copper River County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 62.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Copper River 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 (52)

91 MILE LOOP

NABESNA ROAD

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

DENALI HIGHWAY

GLENN HWY SPUR

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

GLENN HIGHWAY

DENALI HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

IRR:OLD ALIGN RICH

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

NABESNA ROAD

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

91 MILE LOOP

GLENN HIGHWAY

LIBERTY F CMPG RD

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

GLENN HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

EDGERTON/MCCARTHY

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TOK CUTOFF

TOK CUTOFF

BURMA ROAD

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

91 MILE LOOP

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