Total bridges
686
Public highway bridges in El Paso County
County profile · official public datasets
El Paso County, CO
686 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.3% rated Good, 65.5% Fair, 3.2% Poor.
- 686
- Public bridges
- 31.3%
- Good condition
- 3.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
El Paso County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.
- Top 38%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 686
- public highway bridges
- 1984
- 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.
El Paso County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, El Paso County ranks #24 of 64 Colorado counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.2%). El Paso County, Colorado contains 686 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.3% are rated “Good,” 65.5% “Fair,” and 3.2% “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
31.3%
215 of 686 rated 7-9
Fair condition
65.5%
449 of 686 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.2%
22 of 686 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#24 of 64
Among Colorado counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 686 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 31.3% (215)
Fair 65.5% (449)
Poor 3.2% (22)
El Paso County's Poor-condition bridges carry 190,132 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 8,642 crossings a day against 16,541 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 686 of 686 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
33.2% of El Paso County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
228 of the 686 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 31.3% 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 15% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I 25 ML SBND over ACADEMY BLVD, built 1971, carries 28,500 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 190,132 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When El Paso County's bridges were built
686 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 4
1900–1909
4 bridges
- 1910s 3
1910–1919
3 bridges
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s 32
1930–1939
32 bridges
- 1940s 8
1940–1949
8 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
66 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
69 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
71 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
113 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
110 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
117 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
63 bridges
- 2020s 24
2020–2029
24 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 117 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1984) matches the Colorado average (1982).
How El Paso County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Colorado counties nearest El Paso County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.2% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1988 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 63 Colorado counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Paso County (this page) | 686 | 31.3% | 65.5% | 3.2% | 1984 |
| Weld County | 614 | 36.8% | 58.5% | 4.7% | 1986 |
| Larimer County | 559 | 49% | 49% | 2% | 1987 |
| Adams County | 535 | 43.9% | 49.2% | 6.9% | 1990 |
| Jefferson County | 464 | 33.8% | 59.9% | 6.3% | 1984 |
| Denver County | 458 | 41.9% | 56.3% | 1.7% | 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 El Paso 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 El Paso County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside CO (686 bridges here).
- Broward County, FL · 686 bridges
- Honolulu County, HI · 682 bridges
- Caddo County, LA · 682 bridges
- Ellis County, TX · 691 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside CO (1984 here).
- Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
- Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
- Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges
- Steuben County, NY · avg 1984 · 627 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (215)
PATROL ROAD
GoodOver: EAST CHANNEL
0.45 miles east of Enoch, El Paso, CO
Built 2022 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 50
RANGEWOOD DRIVE
GoodOver: COTTONWOOD CREEK
0.4 MI S OF WOODMEN RD, El Paso, CO
Built 1985 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 8,083
LOCAL DRAINAGE
GoodOver: FOREIGN TRADE ZONE BLVD
0.1 MI N OF BRADLEY RD, El Paso, CO
Built 1901 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 435
TANK TRAIL
GoodOver: DRAINAGE DITCH
TANK TRAIL, El Paso, CO
Built 2009 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 500
DZURIS ROAD
GoodOver: BIG SANDY CREEK TRIB.
JUST E OF FAIRPLAY ROAD, El Paso, CO
Built 1989 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 53
HARRISVILLE RD
GoodOver: MUSTANG CREEK
0.8 MI WEST OF SIMLA HWY, El Paso, CO
Built 1988 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 124
HARRISVILLE RD
GoodOver: MUSTANG CREEK
1.2 MI EAST OF SIMLA HWY, El Paso, CO
Built 1988 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 82
ALTA VISTA ROAD
GoodOver: MUSTANG CREEK
0.4 MI E OF BERRIDGE RD, El Paso, CO
Built 1989 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 24
DAVENPORT ROAD
GoodOver: LITTLE HORSE CREEK
0.1 MI N OF CORONA ROAD, El Paso, CO
Built 1991 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 36
EURICH ROAD
GoodOver: BIG SANDY CREEK TRIB
1.87 MI N OF MCCLASKEY RD, El Paso, CO
Built 1995 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 60
SIMLA HIGHWAY
GoodOver: MUSTANG CREEK
1.2 MI N OF FUNK ROAD, El Paso, CO
Built 1994 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 30
RAMAH HIGHWAY
GoodOver: N. FORK HORSE CREEK
1.5 MI S HARRISVILLE ROAD, El Paso, CO
Built 1991 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 118
W FRONTAGE ROAD
GoodOver: SAND CREEK
FRONTAGE RD N OF AIRPORT, El Paso, CO
Built 1995 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 52,000
US 24 ML
GoodOver: SAND CREEK
S OF PLATTE ON POWERS BLV, El Paso, CO
Built 1995 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 52,000
SH 115 ML
GoodOver: DRAW
8.7 MI NE FREMONT C.L., El Paso, CO
Built 2002 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 8,900
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.