Total bridges
389
Public highway bridges in Anne Arundel County
County profile · official public datasets
Anne Arundel County, MD
389 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32.6% rated Good, 65.8% Fair, 1.5% Poor.
- 389
- Public bridges
- 32.6%
- Good condition
- 1.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Anne Arundel County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 13%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 389
- 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.
Anne Arundel County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Anne Arundel County ranks #3 of 24 Maryland counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.5%). Anne Arundel County, Maryland contains 389 public highway bridges. Roughly 32.6% are rated “Good,” 65.8% “Fair,” and 1.5% “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
32.6%
127 of 389 rated 7-9
Fair condition
65.8%
256 of 389 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.5%
6 of 389 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#3 of 24
Among Maryland counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 389 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 32.6% (127)
Fair 65.8% (256)
Poor 1.5% (6)
Anne Arundel County's Poor-condition bridges carry 36,290 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 6,048 crossings a day against 27,009 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 389 of 389 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
37.8% of Anne Arundel County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
147 of the 389 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 32.6% 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 61.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
MD 710 over BRANCH OF BACK CREEK, built 1973, carries 22,351 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 36,290 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Anne Arundel County's bridges were built
389 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 11
1930–1939
11 bridges
- 1940s 18
1940–1949
18 bridges
- 1950s 47
1950–1959
47 bridges
- 1960s 33
1960–1969
33 bridges
- 1970s 47
1970–1979
47 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
66 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
119 bridges
- 2000s 31
2000–2009
31 bridges
- 2010s 13
2010–2019
13 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 119 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 8 years newer than the Maryland average of 1972.
How Anne Arundel County compares with Maryland's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Maryland counties nearest Anne Arundel County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.5% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1968 is 12 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 23 Maryland counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frederick County | 486 | 43.2% | 54.1% | 2.7% | 1971 |
| Anne Arundel County (this page) | 389 | 32.6% | 65.8% | 1.5% | 1980 |
| Baltimore city County | 374 | 16% | 75.4% | 8.6% | 1964 |
| Howard County | 309 | 35.9% | 58.3% | 5.8% | 1978 |
| Washington County | 300 | 28.3% | 67% | 4.7% | 1956 |
| Harford County | 275 | 38.2% | 57.1% | 4.7% | 1973 |
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 Anne Arundel 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 Anne Arundel County, both outside Maryland so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MD (389 bridges here).
- Arapahoe County, CO · 391 bridges
- Lee County, FL · 391 bridges
- Kingman County, KS · 391 bridges
- Wayne County, OH · 391 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MD (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.
Poor-condition bridges (6)
MD 710
PoorOver: BRANCH OF BACK CREEK
0.46 MI E OF MD 2, Anne Arundel, MD
Built 1973 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 22,351
ROCK AVE
PoorOver: MIDWAY BRANCH
.03 MI W LEONARD WOOD AVE, Anne Arundel, MD
Built 1984 Load: 47.3 t ADT: 800
OCONNOR ROAD
PoorOver: DEEP RUN
0.1 MI N OF MD RTE 103, Anne Arundel, MD
Built 1944 Load: 55.8 t ADT: 599
HOSPITAL DRIVE
PoorOver: MARLEY CREEK
0.4 MI. E. OF OAKWOOD RD, Anne Arundel, MD
Built 1991 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 4,097
TOWN CENTER BLVD.
PoorOver: TRIBUTARY TO SEVERN RUN
0.5 MI. N OF MD32, Anne Arundel, MD
Built 1988 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 7,820
McKENDREE ROAD
PoorOver: LYONS CREEK
1.9 MI EAST OF ROUTE 4, Anne Arundel, MD
Built 1965 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 623
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.