Total bridges
71
Public highway bridges in Rio Grande County
County profile · official public datasets
Rio Grande County, CO
71 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 19.7% rated Good, 78.9% Fair, 1.4% Poor.
- 71
- Public bridges
- 19.7%
- Good condition
- 1.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Rio Grande County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 13%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 71
- public highway bridges
- 1971
- 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 Grande County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rio Grande County ranks #8 of 64 Colorado counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.4%). Rio Grande County, Colorado contains 71 public highway bridges. Roughly 19.7% are rated “Good,” 78.9% “Fair,” and 1.4% “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%
14 of 71 rated 7-9
Fair condition
78.9%
56 of 71 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.4%
1 of 71 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#8 of 64
Among Colorado counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 71 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 19.7% (14)
Fair 78.9% (56)
Poor 1.4% (1)
Rio Grande County's Poor-condition bridges carry 738 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 738 crossings a day against 1,254 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 71 of 71 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
62% of Rio Grande County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
44 of the 71 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
FDR 360 over SOUTH FORK, built 1976, carries 738 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 738 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Rio Grande County's bridges were built
71 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
7 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
17 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
13 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
10 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
10 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s 1
2010–2019
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 17 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 11 years older than the Colorado average of 1982.
How Rio Grande County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Colorado counties nearest Rio Grande County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 12 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 63 Colorado counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clear Creek County | 77 | 36.4% | 57.1% | 6.5% | 1978 |
| Washington County | 75 | 16% | 77.3% | 6.7% | 1975 |
| Rio Grande County (this page) | 71 | 19.7% | 78.9% | 1.4% | 1971 |
| Bent County | 68 | 23.5% | 73.5% | 2.9% | 1976 |
| Broomfield County | 66 | 42.4% | 56.1% | 1.5% | 2000 |
| Delta County | 64 | 51.6% | 45.3% | 3.1% | 1986 |
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 Grande 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 Grande County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside CO (71 bridges here).
- Charlton County, GA · 71 bridges
- Madison County, GA · 71 bridges
- Taylor County, GA · 71 bridges
- Telfair County, GA · 71 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside CO (1971 here).
- Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
- Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
- Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
- Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (56)
ESCONDIDA DRIVE
FairOver: SOUTH FORK RIO GRANDE R.
560 ft S OF HIGHWAY 160, Rio Grande, CO
Built 1998 Load: 45.1 t ADT: 137
MASONIC PARK DR.
FairOver: RIO GRANDE RIVER
3.5 MI NW OF SOUTH FORK, Rio Grande, CO
Built 1993 Load: 46.2 t ADT: 112
US 160 ML
FairOver: EMPIRE CANAL
12 MI W OF ALAMOSA, Rio Grande, CO
Built 1972 Load: 46.7 t ADT: 7,700
COUNTY ROAD 4W
FairOver: RIO GRANDE CANAL
.7 MI N OF CR 8N, Rio Grande, CO
Built 1966 Load: 48.9 t ADT: 184
COUNTY ROAD 3E
FairOver: FARMERS UNION LATERAL
AT CR 3E AND 11N, Rio Grande, CO
Built 1996 Load: 58.6 t ADT: 1,002
COUNTY ROAD 6E
FairOver: SAN LUIS CANAL
1.2 MI N OF CR 1S, Rio Grande, CO
Built 2005 Load: 66.9 t ADT: 886
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.