Total bridges
686
Public highway bridges in El Paso County
County profile · official public datasets
686 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.3% rated Good, 65.5% Fair, 3.2% Poor.
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.
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.
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.
Total bridges
686
Public highway bridges in El Paso County
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
Share of 686 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
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.
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.
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.
686 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
Built before 1900
1 bridges
1900–1909
4 bridges
1910–1919
3 bridges
1920–1929
5 bridges
1930–1939
32 bridges
1940–1949
8 bridges
1950–1959
66 bridges
1960–1969
69 bridges
1970–1979
71 bridges
1980–1989
113 bridges
1990–1999
110 bridges
2000–2009
117 bridges
2010–2019
63 bridges
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).
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.
Two NBI-derived peer sets for El Paso County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Nearest county inventories outside CO (686 bridges here).
Nearest mean year-built outside CO (1984 here).
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Over: COTTONWOOD CREEK
0.4 MI S OF WOODMEN RD, El Paso, CO
Over: FOREIGN TRADE ZONE BLVD
0.1 MI N OF BRADLEY RD, El Paso, CO
Over: DRAINAGE DITCH
TANK TRAIL, El Paso, CO
Over: BIG SANDY CREEK TRIB.
JUST E OF FAIRPLAY ROAD, El Paso, CO
Over: MUSTANG CREEK
0.8 MI WEST OF SIMLA HWY, El Paso, CO
Over: MUSTANG CREEK
1.2 MI EAST OF SIMLA HWY, El Paso, CO
Over: MUSTANG CREEK
0.4 MI E OF BERRIDGE RD, El Paso, CO
Over: LITTLE HORSE CREEK
0.1 MI N OF CORONA ROAD, El Paso, CO
Over: BIG SANDY CREEK TRIB
1.87 MI N OF MCCLASKEY RD, El Paso, CO
Over: MUSTANG CREEK
1.2 MI N OF FUNK ROAD, El Paso, CO
Over: N. FORK HORSE CREEK
1.5 MI S HARRISVILLE ROAD, El Paso, CO
Over: SAND CREEK
FRONTAGE RD N OF AIRPORT, El Paso, CO
Over: SAND CREEK
S OF PLATTE ON POWERS BLV, El Paso, CO
Over: DRAW
8.7 MI NE FREMONT C.L., El Paso, CO
Over: FOUNTAIN CREEK
0.1 M S OF HIGHWAY 24, El Paso, CO
Over: PLATTE AVENUE
0.3 MI EAST OF NEVADA AVE, El Paso, CO
Over: SHOOKS RUN
JUST E OF N CORONA STREET, El Paso, CO
Over: FOUNTAIN CREEK
0.2 MI S OF COLORADO AVE, El Paso, CO
Over: MONUMENT CREEK
JUST W OF MESA ROAD, El Paso, CO
Over: ROCK CREEK
5.2 MI S OF ACADEMY BLVD, El Paso, CO
Over: FOUNTAIN CREEK
0.5 MI N OF JCT I-25 ML, El Paso, CO
Over: CAMP CREEK
AT 31ST STREET, El Paso, CO
Over: BIG SPRING CREEK
2.5 MI E OF ELLICOTT, El Paso, CO
Over: FOUNTAIN CREEK
0.5 MI NE OF I-25, El Paso, CO
Over: B Ditch
500 ft SE of Chiles Ave., El Paso, CO
Over: BIG SANDY CREEK TRIB
0.4 MILES NORTH OF CALHAN, El Paso, CO
Over: RDWY UP RR BNSF RR DITC
0.7 MI NE OF JCT I-25, El Paso, CO
Over: RDWY UP RR BNSF RR DITC
0.7 MI NE OF JCT I25, El Paso, CO
Over: FOUNTAIN CREEK
0.5 MI E OF I-25, El Paso, CO
Over: ACADEMY BLVD
S. INT. OF ACADEMY &, El Paso, CO
Over: SHOOKS RUN
0.2 MI E OF WAHSATCH AVE., El Paso, CO
Over: SHOOKS RUN
0.1 MI E OF WAHSATCH, El Paso, CO
Over: SHOOKS RUN
300 FT E OF EL PASO ST, El Paso, CO
Over: FOUNTAIN CREEK SR
1.7 MI SE OF PIKES PEAK-T, El Paso, CO
Over: I 25 ML
S. EDGE OF COLO. SPRINGS, El Paso, CO
Over: BLACK SQUIRREL CREEK
1.5 MI E OF MERIDIAN ROAD, El Paso, CO
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
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.