Total bridges
137
Public highway bridges in Fremont County
County profile · official public datasets
Fremont County, CO
137 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 19.7% rated Good, 73.7% Fair, 6.6% Poor.
- 137
- Public bridges
- 19.7%
- Good condition
- 6.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Fremont 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.
- 46th
- of 64 on Poor share
- 6.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 137
- 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.
Fremont County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Fremont County ranks #46 of 64 Colorado counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.6%). Fremont County, Colorado contains 137 public highway bridges. Roughly 19.7% are rated “Good,” 73.7% “Fair,” and 6.6% “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
19.7%
27 of 137 rated 7-9
Fair condition
73.7%
101 of 137 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.6%
9 of 137 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#46 of 64
Among Colorado counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 137 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 19.7% (27)
Fair 73.7% (101)
Poor 6.6% (9)
Fremont County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,031 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,226 crossings a day against 2,103 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 136 of 137 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
49.6% of Fremont County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
68 of the 137 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 19.7% 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 63.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US 50 ML WBND over SIX MILE CREEK, built 1949, carries 7,000 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 11,031 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Fremont County's bridges were built
137 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s 5
1910–1919
5 bridges
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
25 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
14 bridges
- 1950s 3
1950–1959
3 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
10 bridges
- 1970s 8
1970–1979
8 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
24 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
20 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
11 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 25 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 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 16 years older than the Colorado average of 1982.
How Fremont County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Colorado counties nearest Fremont County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.6% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 10 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 63 Colorado counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield County | 167 | 34.7% | 64.1% | 1.2% | 1980 |
| Prowers County | 137 | 17.5% | 69.3% | 13.1% | 1974 |
| Fremont County (this page) | 137 | 19.7% | 73.7% | 6.6% | 1966 |
| Kit Carson County | 130 | 30.8% | 67.7% | 1.5% | 1970 |
| Lincoln County | 129 | 17.8% | 74.4% | 7.8% | 1977 |
| Montrose County | 118 | 36.4% | 61% | 2.5% | 1980 |
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 Fremont 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 Fremont County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside CO (137 bridges here).
- Fremont County, ID · 137 bridges
- Orange County, IN · 137 bridges
- Shelby County, KY · 137 bridges
- Mercer County, MO · 137 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside CO (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.
Fair-condition bridges (101)
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.