Total bridges
44
Public highway bridges in Archuleta County
County profile · official public datasets
Archuleta County, CO
44 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 29.5% rated Good, 63.6% Fair, 6.8% Poor.
- 44
- Public bridges
- 29.5%
- Good condition
- 6.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Archuleta 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.
- 48th
- of 64 on Poor share
- 6.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 44
- public highway bridges
- 1976
- 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.
Archuleta County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Archuleta County ranks #48 of 64 Colorado counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.8%). Archuleta County, Colorado contains 44 public highway bridges. Roughly 29.5% are rated “Good,” 63.6% “Fair,” and 6.8% “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.
Good condition
29.5%
13 of 44 rated 7-9
Fair condition
63.6%
28 of 44 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.8%
3 of 44 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#48 of 64
Among Colorado counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 44 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 29.5% (13)
Fair 63.6% (28)
Poor 6.8% (3)
Archuleta County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,209 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 403 crossings a day against 1,868 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 44 of 44 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
50% of Archuleta County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
22 of the 44 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 29.5% 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 91% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
IRR# US 84 ML over COYOTE CREEK, built 1938, carries 1,100 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 1,209 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Archuleta County's bridges were built
44 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
8 bridges
- 1970s 3
1970–1979
3 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
5 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
8 bridges
- 2000s 1
2000–2009
1 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
6 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 8 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1976, 6 years older than the Colorado average of 1982.
How Archuleta County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Colorado counties nearest Archuleta County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.8% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1976 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 7 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 63 Colorado counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yuma County | 49 | 51% | 44.9% | 4.1% | 1981 |
| Jackson County | 47 | 31.9% | 63.8% | 4.3% | 1983 |
| Archuleta County (this page) | 44 | 29.5% | 63.6% | 6.8% | 1976 |
| Saguache County | 41 | 48.8% | 43.9% | 7.3% | 1972 |
| Costilla County | 39 | 15.4% | 84.6% | 0% | 1989 |
| Ouray County | 39 | 43.6% | 53.8% | 2.6% | 1991 |
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 Archuleta 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 Archuleta County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside CO (44 bridges here).
- Bacon County, GA · 44 bridges
- Pulaski County, GA · 44 bridges
- Rockdale County, GA · 44 bridges
- Wallace County, KS · 44 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside CO (1976 here).
- Marion County, IN · avg 1976 · 958 bridges
- Mohave County, AZ · avg 1976 · 641 bridges
- Comanche County, OK · avg 1976 · 593 bridges
- Prince George's County, MD · avg 1976 · 576 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
IRR# CO RD 500
PoorOver: CAT CREEK
NEAR CAMADO, Archuleta, CO
Built 1927 Load: 4.7 t ADT: 36
FDR 660
PoorOver: RIO BLANCO
12.2 MI ESE OF PAGOSA SPG, Archuleta, CO
Built 1960 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 73
IRR# US 84 ML
PoorOver: COYOTE CREEK
11 MI NORTH OF NEW MEXICO, Archuleta, CO
Built 1938 Load: 27.4 t ADT: 1,100
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
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.