County profile · official public datasets

Kennebec County, ME

188 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 19.1% rated Good, 67.6% Fair, 13.3% Poor.

188
Public bridges: 19.1%
Good condition: 13.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Kennebec County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 44%
lowest Poor share in state: 13.3%
Poor-condition share: 188
public highway bridges: 1965
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.

Kennebec County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Kennebec County ranks #7 of 16 Maine counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 13.3%). Kennebec County, Maine contains 188 public highway bridges. Roughly 19.1% are rated “Good,” 67.6% “Fair,” and 13.3% “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

188

Public highway bridges in Kennebec County

Good condition

19.1%

36 of 188 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67.6%

127 of 188 rated 5-6

Poor condition

13.3%

25 of 188 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#7 of 16

Among Maine counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 188 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

19.1% (36)

Fair

67.6% (127)

Poor

13.3% (25)

Kennebec County's Poor-condition bridges carry 84,771 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 13.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,391 crossings a day against 4,724 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 188 of 188 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

74.5% of Kennebec County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

140 of the 188 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 19.1% 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 20% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

WESTERN AV over INTERSTATE 95 NB & SB, built 1955, carries 16,934 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 25-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 84,771 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

1
1910s

3
1920s

4
1930s

21
1940s

8
1950s

53
1960s

37
1970s

13
1980s

11
1990s

9
2000s

10
2010s

10
2020s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 53 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 5 years older than the Maine average of 1970.

How Kennebec County compares with Maine's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Maine counties nearest Kennebec County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 13.3% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 6 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 15 Maine counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Kennebec County and the 5 Maine counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
York County	236	32.6%	58.1%	9.3%	1976
Aroostook County	229	17.9%	71.6%	10.5%	1970
Kennebec County (this page)	188	19.1%	67.6%	13.3%	1965
Somerset County	173	19.7%	56.6%	23.7%	1967
Androscoggin County	135	41.5%	48.1%	10.4%	1974
Franklin County	128	24.2%	53.9%	21.9%	1968

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 Kennebec 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 Kennebec County, both outside Maine so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside ME (188 bridges here).

Pope County, AR · 188 bridges
Coos County, NH · 188 bridges
Socorro County, NM · 188 bridges
Baker County, OR · 188 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside ME (1965 here).

Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 188 Good 36 Fair 127 Poor 25

Good-condition bridges (36)

Sort:

Kennebec County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Kennebec County's Poor-condition bridges carry 84,771 vehicle crossings a day

74.5% of Kennebec County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 20% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Kennebec County compares with Maine's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (36)

RTE 197

UNITY RD

I 95 NB

MAPLE STREET

PINE TREE RD

ALFOND CONNECTOR

I-95(SB)

POND RD

MAIN ST

ALFOND CONNECTOR

WINTHROP ROAD

LEWISTON RD

BRIDGE ST

INTERSTATE 95 NB

GARLAND RD

OLD MILL RD

SMALL RD

RAMP ON FROM W AVE

LITCHFIELD ROAD

TRUE ROAD

WATER ST

BRIDGE ST

ALFOND CONNECTOR

ALFOND CONNECTOR

CASTLE ISLAND RD

MIDDLE RD

MAINE AV

COBBOSSEE RD

WILSON POND RD

POND RD

LIBBY HILL RD

BLAIR RD

BLINN HILL RD

RIVERSIDE DR

MAIN ST

WEST RD/FERRIN RD

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