County profile · official public datasets

Southeast Fairbanks County, AK

64 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32.8% rated Good, 54.7% Fair, 12.5% Poor.

64
Public bridges: 32.8%
Good condition: 12.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Southeast Fairbanks 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.

23rd
of 27 on Poor share: 12.5%
Poor-condition share: 64
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Southeast Fairbanks County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Southeast Fairbanks County ranks #23 of 27 Alaska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.5%). Southeast Fairbanks County, Alaska contains 64 public highway bridges. Roughly 32.8% are rated “Good,” 54.7% “Fair,” and 12.5% “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 Southeast Fairbanks County

Good condition

32.8%

21 of 64 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.7%

35 of 64 rated 5-6

Poor condition

12.5%

8 of 64 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#23 of 27

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

Condition distribution

Share of 64 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

32.8% (21)

Fair

54.7% (35)

Poor

12.5% (8)

Southeast Fairbanks County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,550 vehicle crossings a day

That is 7.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 194 crossings a day against 495 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 64 of 64 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.8% of Southeast Fairbanks County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

21 of the 64 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 32.8% 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 18.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY over UPPER MILLER CREEK, built 1958, carries 280 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,550 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1940s

4
1950s

13
1960s

3
1970s

7
1980s

20
1990s

8
2000s

2
2010s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 20 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 9 years older than the Alaska average of 1989.

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

The 5 Alaska counties nearest Southeast Fairbanks County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.5% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1985 is 5 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Southeast Fairbanks 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 (this page)	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
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 Southeast Fairbanks 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 Southeast Fairbanks County, both outside Alaska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AK (64 bridges here).

Delta County, CO · 64 bridges
Sedgwick County, CO · 64 bridges
Hancock County, GA · 64 bridges
Jefferson County, GA · 64 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AK (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 64 Good 21 Fair 35 Poor 8

All bridges (64)

Sort:

Southeast Fairbanks County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Southeast Fairbanks County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,550 vehicle crossings a day

32.8% of Southeast Fairbanks County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 18.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Southeast Fairbanks 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 (64)

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

IRR:NORTHWAY ROAD

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

IRR:TETLIN ROAD

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

TOK CUTOFF

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

DELTA-NISTLER ROAD

DELTA-NISTLER ROAD

DELTA-NISTLER ROAD

ALASKA HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

ALASKA HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TAYLOR HIGHWAY

RICHARDSON HIGHWAY

TOK CUTOFF

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