Total bridges
42
Public highway bridges in Talbot County
County profile · official public datasets
Talbot County, MD
42 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 21.4% rated Good, 76.2% Fair, 2.4% Poor.
- 42
- Public bridges
- 21.4%
- Good condition
- 2.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Talbot 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 17%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 42
- public highway bridges
- 1967
- 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.
Talbot County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Talbot County ranks #4 of 24 Maryland counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.4%). Talbot County, Maryland contains 42 public highway bridges. Roughly 21.4% are rated “Good,” 76.2% “Fair,” and 2.4% “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
21.4%
9 of 42 rated 7-9
Fair condition
76.2%
32 of 42 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.4%
1 of 42 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#4 of 24
Among Maryland counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 42 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 21.4% (9)
Fair 76.2% (32)
Poor 2.4% (1)
Talbot County's Poor-condition bridges carry 820 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 820 crossings a day against 6,634 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 42 of 42 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
59.5% of Talbot County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
25 of the 42 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 21.4% 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
TUNIS MILLS ROAD over LEEDS CREEK, built 1963, 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 820 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Talbot County's bridges were built
42 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 3
1910–1919
3 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
8 bridges
- 1950s 2
1950–1959
2 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
7 bridges
- 1970s 2
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s 2
1980–1989
2 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
5 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
5 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
4 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1940s, when 8 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 75 to 84 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 5 years older than the Maryland average of 1972.
How Talbot County compares with Maryland's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Maryland counties nearest Talbot County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 6 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 23 Maryland counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Mary's County | 50 | 26% | 70% | 4% | 1968 |
| Dorchester County | 47 | 14.9% | 74.5% | 10.6% | 1980 |
| Somerset County | 46 | 19.6% | 73.9% | 6.5% | 1975 |
| Kent County | 44 | 11.4% | 84.1% | 4.5% | 1957 |
| Talbot County (this page) | 42 | 21.4% | 76.2% | 2.4% | 1967 |
| Calvert County | 33 | 45.5% | 54.5% | 0% | 1985 |
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 Talbot 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 Talbot County, both outside Maryland so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside MD (42 bridges here).
- Montgomery County, GA · 42 bridges
- Lee County, KY · 42 bridges
- Concordia County, LA · 42 bridges
- Chouteau County, MT · 42 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside MD (1967 here).
- Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
- Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
- Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
- Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (9)
MD 331
GoodOver: CHOPTANK RIVER
ON CAROLINE CO LINE, Talbot, MD
Built 2018 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 13,600
MD 33
GoodOver: KNAPPS NARROWS
0.91 M W OF BENDERS LANE, Talbot, MD
Built 1998 Load: 34.9 t ADT: 2,201
MD 404
GoodOver: HIGHWAY DRAINAGE
0.41 M E OF CONNELLY RD, Talbot, MD
Built 2017 Load: 35.0 t ADT: 19,600
DUTCHMANS LANE
GoodOver: WINDMILL BRANCH
850 FEET EAST OF US 50, Talbot, MD
Built 2010 Load: 35.8 t ADT: 5,911
MD 303
GoodOver: BR OF TUCKAHOE CREEK
0.12 M S OF MILL RIDGE RD, Talbot, MD
Built 2008 Load: 40.4 t ADT: 800
MD 404 ALT
GoodOver: NORWICH CREEK
0.25 MI E OF MD 404, Talbot, MD
Built 1995 Load: 41.7 t ADT: 280
MD 404
GoodOver: BRANCH OF MILL CREEK
0.2 M W OF DULIN ROAD, Talbot, MD
Built 2017 Load: 48.6 t ADT: 16,500
KINGSTON ROAD
GoodOver: KINGS CREEK
5 MI NE OF EASTON, Talbot, MD
Built 2007 Load: 54.4 t ADT: 280
BRUCEVILLE ROAD
GoodOver: MILES CREEK
8 MI SE OF EASTON, Talbot, MD
Built 2005 Load: 62.6 t ADT: 531
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.