County profile · official public datasets

Northwest Arctic County, AK

7 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 28.6% rated Good, 71.4% Fair, 0% Poor.

7
Public bridges
28.6%
Good condition
0%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Northwest Arctic County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 7%
lowest Poor share in state
0%
Poor-condition share
7
public highway bridges
2000
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.

Northwest Arctic County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Northwest Arctic County ranks #2 of 27 Alaska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Northwest Arctic County, Alaska contains 7 public highway bridges. Roughly 28.6% are rated “Good,” 71.4% “Fair,” and 0% “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

7

Public highway bridges in Northwest Arctic County

Good condition

28.6%

2 of 7 rated 7-9

Fair condition

71.4%

5 of 7 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0%

0 of 7 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#2 of 27

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

Condition distribution

Share of 7 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
28.6% (2)
Fair
71.4% (5)
Poor
0% (0)

0% of Northwest Arctic County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

0 of the 7 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 28.6% 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.

When Northwest Arctic County's bridges were built

7 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 3 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 42.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 2000, 11 years newer than the Alaska average of 1989.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Alaska counties nearest Northwest Arctic County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 2000 against a peer-group mean of 1990 is 10 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Northwest Arctic County and the 5 Alaska counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Yakutat City and County 15 13.3%
Bethel County 13 7.7%
Lake and Peninsula County 10 10%
Aleutians West County 8 0%
Northwest Arctic County (this page) 7 0%
Skagway County 6 16.7%

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 Northwest Arctic County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

Poor-condition bridges (0)

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.