County profile · official public datasets

Hampden County, MA

428 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 17.1% rated Good, 75.5% Fair, 7.5% Poor.

428
Public bridges: 17.1%
Good condition: 7.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Hampden 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 46%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.5%
Poor-condition share: 428
public highway bridges: 1956
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.

Hampden County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hampden County ranks #6 of 13 Massachusetts counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.5%). Hampden County, Massachusetts contains 428 public highway bridges. Roughly 17.1% are rated “Good,” 75.5% “Fair,” and 7.5% “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.

Total bridges

428

Public highway bridges in Hampden County

Good condition

17.1%

73 of 428 rated 7-9

Fair condition

75.5%

323 of 428 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.5%

32 of 428 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#6 of 13

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

Condition distribution

Share of 428 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

17.1% (73)

Fair

75.5% (323)

Poor

7.5% (32)

Hampden County's Poor-condition bridges carry 470,163 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 15,672 crossings a day against 11,783 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 425 of 428 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

82.2% of Hampden County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

352 of the 428 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 17.1% 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 16.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I 291 CONN B & C over HWY DWIGHT ST, built 1967, carries 78,178 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 32-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 470,163 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

19
1900s

8
1910s

7
1920s

18
1930s

46
1940s

6
1950s

164
1960s

74
1970s

21
1980s

12
1990s

19
2000s

15
2010s

16
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 164 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 38.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1956, 5 years older than the Massachusetts average of 1961.

How Hampden County compares with Massachusetts's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Massachusetts counties nearest Hampden County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1956 against a peer-group mean of 1962 is 6 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 12 Massachusetts counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hampden County and the 5 Massachusetts counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Suffolk County	489	22.7%	67.7%	9.6%	1967
Berkshire County	450	34.7%	57.6%	7.8%	1961
Hampden County (this page)	428	17.1%	75.5%	7.5%	1956
Essex County	395	15.9%	66.8%	17.2%	1957
Bristol County	384	30.2%	63.3%	6.5%	1962
Norfolk County	343	23.6%	71.4%	5%	1962

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MA (428 bridges here).

Rutherford County, TN · 428 bridges
Tioga County, PA · 429 bridges
Smith County, TX · 427 bridges
Plymouth County, IA · 432 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MA (1956 here).

Philadelphia County, PA · avg 1956 · 585 bridges
Cochise County, AZ · avg 1956 · 501 bridges
Stanislaus County, CA · avg 1956 · 386 bridges
Washington County, MD · avg 1956 · 300 bridges

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

All 428 Good 73 Fair 323 Poor 32

Fair-condition bridges (323)

Sort:

Hampden County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hampden County's Poor-condition bridges carry 470,163 vehicle crossings a day

82.2% of Hampden County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 16.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hampden County compares with Massachusetts's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (323)

ST 23 BLANDFORD RD

I 291 /US20

I 90 EB

HWY MILL LANE RD

HWY CARRINGTN RD

HWY BRKSHRE AVE

I 91 NB

I 91 SB

I 90 EB

HWY NEW LOMBARD

I 90 WB

HWY HAMPDEN AVE

I 90

US 20 E MAIN ST

I 91 SB

I 391 & RAMPS ABCD

I 291 LINE K

US202 ST10/ELM SB

I 90 EB

I 90 EB

I 90 WB

HWY MONTGOMRY RD

I 90 EB

HWY W HARTLND RD

I 90 WB

I 291 CONN A

I 90 EXIT 63 RAMP

I 90 WB

HWY SOMERS RD

HWY BLANDFORD RD

I 90 WB

I 91 NB

HWY WEST RD

HWY MIDDLEFLD RD

ST 57 EB

ST 57 WB

HWY BAY STATE DR

I 90 EB

I 90 WB

HWY WORONOCO RD

ST187 LITLE RIV RD

I 90 EB

I 90 WB

HWY GARDEN ST

I 90 EB

I 90 EB

I 90 WB

I 90 EB

I 90 EB

I 90 WB

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