Total bridges
75
Public highway bridges in Washington County
County profile · official public datasets
Washington County, CO
75 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 16% rated Good, 77.3% Fair, 6.7% Poor.
- 75
- Public bridges
- 16%
- Good condition
- 6.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Washington 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.
- 47th
- of 64 on Poor share
- 6.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 75
- public highway bridges
- 1975
- 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.
Washington County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Washington County ranks #47 of 64 Colorado counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.7%). Washington County, Colorado contains 75 public highway bridges. Roughly 16% are rated “Good,” 77.3% “Fair,” and 6.7% “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
16%
12 of 75 rated 7-9
Fair condition
77.3%
58 of 75 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.7%
5 of 75 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#47 of 64
Among Colorado counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 75 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 16% (12)
Fair 77.3% (58)
Poor 6.7% (5)
Washington County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,068 vehicle crossings a day
That is 5.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 414 crossings a day against 790 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 75 of 75 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
45.3% of Washington County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
34 of the 75 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 16% 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 39.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SH 61 ML over SURVEYOR CREEK, built 1952, carries 820 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 2,068 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Washington County's bridges were built
75 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
10 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s 7
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
10 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
10 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
18 bridges
- 2000s 6
2000–2009
6 bridges
- 2010s 2
2010–2019
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 18 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1975, 7 years older than the Colorado average of 1982.
How Washington County compares with Colorado's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Colorado counties nearest Washington County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.7% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 63 Colorado counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chaffee County | 84 | 28.6% | 65.5% | 6% | 1973 |
| Moffat County | 80 | 28.8% | 65% | 6.3% | 1973 |
| Clear Creek County | 77 | 36.4% | 57.1% | 6.5% | 1978 |
| Washington County (this page) | 75 | 16% | 77.3% | 6.7% | 1975 |
| Rio Grande County | 71 | 19.7% | 78.9% | 1.4% | 1971 |
| Bent County | 68 | 23.5% | 73.5% | 2.9% | 1976 |
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 Washington 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 Washington County, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside CO (75 bridges here).
- Bradford County, FL · 75 bridges
- Toombs County, GA · 75 bridges
- McLean County, KY · 75 bridges
- Mercer County, KY · 75 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside CO (1975 here).
- San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
- Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
- Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
- Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (58)
County Road U
FairOver: Gordon Creek
0.4 Mi. N. of Co. Rd. 4, Washington, CO
Built 2000 Load: 46.4 t ADT: 20
County Road QQ
FairOver: Jack Creek
10 MI N of Co. Rd. 20, Washington, CO
Built 1997 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 4
County Road 57
FairOver: Prewitt Inlet Canal
0.35 Mi. E. of Co. Rd. N, Washington, CO
Built 1994 Load: 52.9 t ADT: 29
County Road QQ
FairOver: Rock Creek
0.95 Mi. N. of Co. Rd. 54, Washington, CO
Built 1986 Load: 54.3 t ADT: 21
County Road PP
FairOver: Jack Creek
0.3 Mi. N. of Co. Rd. 20, Washington, CO
Built 1995 Load: 55.9 t ADT: 25
US 36 ML
FairOver: DRAW
0.8 MI E OF JCT SH 71, Washington, CO
Built 1938 Load: 89.8 t ADT: 700
SH 61 ML
FairOver: DRAW
15.4 MI NO OF JCT US 34, Washington, CO
Built 1965 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 440
County Road D
FairOver: Trib. to Beaver Creek
0.65 Mi. N. of Co. Rd. 20, Washington, CO
Built 1993 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 7
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.