County profile · official public datasets

Nome County, AK

30 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30% rated Good, 63.3% Fair, 6.7% Poor.

30
Public bridges: 30%
Good condition: 6.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Nome 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 44%
lowest Poor share in state: 6.7%
Poor-condition share: 30
public highway bridges: 1977
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.

Nome County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Nome County ranks #12 of 27 Alaska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.7%). Nome County, Alaska contains 30 public highway bridges. Roughly 30% are rated “Good,” 63.3% “Fair,” and 6.7% “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

Public highway bridges in Nome County

Good condition

30%

9 of 30 rated 7-9

Fair condition

63.3%

19 of 30 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.7%

2 of 30 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#12 of 27

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

Condition distribution

Share of 30 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30% (9)

Fair

63.3% (19)

Poor

6.7% (2)

Nome County's Poor-condition bridges carry 40 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 20 crossings a day against 234 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 30 of 30 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

46.7% of Nome County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

14 of the 30 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 30% 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 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD over SINUK RIVER, built 1967, carries 20 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 40 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1940s

1
1950s

2
1960s

10
1970s

5
1980s

6
1990s

1
2000s

3
2010s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1977, 12 years older than the Alaska average of 1989.

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

The 5 Alaska counties nearest Nome County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.7% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1988 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Nome County and the 5 Alaska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Sitka City and County	37	45.9%	51.4%	2.7%	1989
Nome County (this page)	30	30%	63.3%	6.7%	1977
Denali County	27	18.5%	77.8%	3.7%	1976
Kodiak Island County	25	32%	60%	8%	1981
Haines County	20	45%	50%	5%	1994
Aleutians East County	16	31.3%	62.5%	6.3%	2000

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AK (30 bridges here).

Bleckley County, GA · 30 bridges
Lake County, MI · 30 bridges
Box Butte County, NE · 30 bridges
Sargent County, ND · 30 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AK (1977 here).

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 30 Good 9 Fair 19 Poor 2

All bridges (30)

Sort:

Nome County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Nome County's Poor-condition bridges carry 40 vehicle crossings a day

46.7% of Nome County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 50% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Nome 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 (30)

IRR:NOME-TAYLOR RD

IRR:KINGKINGIN RD

IRR:NOME-TAYLOR RD

IRR:NOME-TAYLOR RD

WINTER TRAIL ROAD

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:LANDFILL ROAD

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

ROAD

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:NOME-TAYLOR RD

IRR:NOME-TAYLOR RD

IRR:NOME-TAYLOR RD

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:JAFET DRIVE

GLACIER CR ROAD

IRR:NOME-COUNCIL

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

IRR:NOME-TELLER RD

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