County profile · official public datasets

Santa Cruz County, AZ

138 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 55.8% rated Good, 42.8% Fair, 1.4% Poor.

138
Public bridges: 55.8%
Good condition: 1.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Santa Cruz 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 47%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.4%
Poor-condition share: 138
public highway bridges: 1966
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.

Santa Cruz County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Santa Cruz County ranks #7 of 15 Arizona counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.4%). Santa Cruz County, Arizona contains 138 public highway bridges. Roughly 55.8% are rated “Good,” 42.8% “Fair,” and 1.4% “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

138

Public highway bridges in Santa Cruz County

Good condition

55.8%

77 of 138 rated 7-9

Fair condition

42.8%

59 of 138 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.4%

2 of 138 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#7 of 15

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

Condition distribution

Share of 138 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

55.8% (77)

Fair

42.8% (59)

Poor

1.4% (2)

Santa Cruz County's Poor-condition bridges carry 520 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 260 crossings a day against 6,858 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 138 of 138 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

58% of Santa Cruz County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

80 of the 138 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 55.8% 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 64% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Elgin road over Babocomari Creek, built 1920, carries 333 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 520 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

4
1930s

11
1940s

17
1950s

15
1960s

29
1970s

42
1980s

5
1990s

5
2000s

4
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 42 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 11 years older than the Arizona average of 1977.

How Santa Cruz County compares with Arizona's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Arizona counties nearest Santa Cruz County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 14 Arizona counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Santa Cruz County and the 5 Arizona counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Yuma County	262	50.4%	47.7%	1.9%	1973
Apache County	259	48.3%	45.9%	5.8%	1973
Gila County	259	60.2%	37.5%	2.3%	1975
Graham County	179	44.1%	52%	3.9%	1954
Santa Cruz County (this page)	138	55.8%	42.8%	1.4%	1966
Greenlee County	90	43.3%	52.2%	4.4%	1958

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 Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz County, both outside Arizona so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside AZ (138 bridges here).

Hancock County, IA · 138 bridges
Boone County, KY · 138 bridges
Ralls County, MO · 138 bridges
Scurry County, TX · 138 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside AZ (1966 here).

Butler County, KS · avg 1966 · 591 bridges
Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Queens County, NY · avg 1966 · 514 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges

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

All 138 Good 77 Fair 59 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (77)

Sort:

Santa Cruz County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Santa Cruz County's Poor-condition bridges carry 520 vehicle crossings a day

58% of Santa Cruz County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 64% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Santa Cruz County compares with Arizona's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (77)

RUBY ROAD

Ave Pastor

Kino Springs Drive

SR 83

SR 82

SR 82

Western Avenue

Western Avenue

I 19 WFR

SR 82

I 19; SB & On Ramp

SB 19

SR 82

Pendleton Drive

Old Tucson Road

Pendleton Drive

SR 189 Ramp SW

Ramp EN

Combine Ramp SW/EN

SR 289; Ruby Rd

I19 NB & Ramp & FR

Baffert Drive

I 19; NB

I 19; SB

SR 82

SR 82

I 19

I 19; NB & EFR

I 19; W Frontage R

I 19; E Frontage R

I 19; W Frontage R

I 19

I 19; E Frontage R

I 19; SB

SR 82

SR 82

SR 82

I 19

I 19; W Frontage R

I 19

I 19; E Frontage R

S PARKER CANYON RD

SR 82

SR 82

Kino Springs Drive

Old Tucson Road

Bridge Road

E Calle Sonora

Harshaw Road

I 19; SB

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