Total bridges
54
Public highway bridges in Rio Blanco County
County profile · official public datasets
Rio Blanco County, CO
54 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.5% rated Good, 66.7% Fair, 1.9% Poor.
- 54
- Public bridges
- 31.5%
- Good condition
- 1.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Rio Blanco County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- Top 22%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 54
- public highway bridges
- 1980
- 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.
Rio Blanco County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rio Blanco County ranks #14 of 64 Colorado counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.9%). Rio Blanco County, Colorado contains 54 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.5% are rated “Good,” 66.7% “Fair,” and 1.9% “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
31.5%
17 of 54 rated 7-9
Fair condition
66.7%
36 of 54 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.9%
1 of 54 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#14 of 64
Among Colorado counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 54 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 31.5% (17)
Fair 66.7% (36)
Poor 1.9% (1)
Rio Blanco County's Poor-condition bridges carry 325 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 325 crossings a day against 545 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 54 of 54 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
31.5% of Rio Blanco County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
17 of the 54 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 31.5% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
County Road 5 over Piceance Creek, built 1970, carries 325 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 325 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Rio Blanco County's bridges were built
54 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s 3
1950–1959
3 bridges
- 1960s 2
1960–1969
2 bridges
- 1970s 4
1970–1979
4 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
14 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
8 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
6 bridges
- 2010s 5
2010–2019
5 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 14 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1980) matches the Colorado average (1982).
How Rio Blanco County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Colorado counties nearest Rio Blanco County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 63 Colorado counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheyenne County | 61 | 57.4% | 42.6% | 0% | 1978 |
| San Miguel County | 59 | 54.2% | 42.4% | 3.4% | 1987 |
| Summit County | 57 | 22.8% | 71.9% | 5.3% | 1980 |
| Park County | 55 | 29.1% | 67.3% | 3.6% | 1975 |
| Rio Blanco County (this page) | 54 | 31.5% | 66.7% | 1.9% | 1980 |
| Yuma County | 49 | 51% | 44.9% | 4.1% | 1981 |
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 Rio Blanco 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 Rio Blanco County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside CO (54 bridges here).
- Brantley County, GA · 54 bridges
- Jones County, GA · 54 bridges
- Larue County, KY · 54 bridges
- Owen County, KY · 54 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside CO (1980 here).
- Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
- Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
- Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
- McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (17)
NFSR 959.1
GoodOver: TROUT CREEK
1 MI. N. OF SHERIFF RESV, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1960 Load: 20.4 t ADT: 72
County Road 121
GoodOver: S.Fk Williams Fork River
0.42 Mi S of Moff Co Line, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1984 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 32
County Road 28
GoodOver: East Douglas Creek
0.2 Mi E of Co Rd 27, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1983 Load: 22.5 t ADT: 23
County Road 2
GoodOver: Cottonwood Creek
12.5 Mi W of Rangley, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1989 Load: 23.4 t ADT: 60
County Road 15
GoodOver: Milk Creek
0.8 M S of Moffat Co Line, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1985 Load: 29.7 t ADT: 41
SH 13 ML
GoodOver: WHITE RIVER
2.5 mi. W of MEEKER, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 2000 Load: 29.8 t ADT: 2,100
SH 64 ML
GoodOver: YELLOW CREEK
26 MI E OF RANGELY, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1997 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 670
Tenth Street
GoodOver: White River
500 Ft So of Water St, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1998 Load: 41.7 t ADT: 1,443
County Road 10
GoodOver: South Fork White River
7.27 Mi E of Co Rd 8, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 2015 Load: 48.3 t ADT: 77
SH 64 ML
GoodOver: DRAW
15 MI E OF JCT SH 139, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 2000 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 670
SH 64 ML
GoodOver: DOUGLAS CREEK
1 MI E OF RANGELY, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1990 Load: 55.2 t ADT: 1,600
COUNTY ROAD 5
GoodOver: STOCK PASS 7
19 Mi W of Co Rd 13, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 2019 Load: 61.6 t ADT: 462
COUNTY ROAD 5
GoodOver: STOCK PASS 17
6 Mi S of Co Rd 64, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 2015 Load: 66.7 t ADT: 325
SH 64 ML
GoodOver: WESTERN FUELS RR
6 MI SE OF DINOSAUR, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1983 Load: 71.3 t ADT: 1,000
County Road 73
GoodOver: White River
0.2 Mi N of St Hwy 64, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 2021 Load: 73.9 t ADT: 21
1005: SPRAGUE GULC
GoodOver: Piceance Creek
25 mi NW of Rifle, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 2008 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 50
SH 139 ML
GoodOver: LOWER HORSE DRAW
7 MI S OF 64 @ RANGELY, Rio Blanco, CO
Built 1990 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 620
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.