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.

When Hampden County's bridges were built

428 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

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.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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 Poor
Suffolk County 489 9.6%
Berkshire County 450 7.8%
Hampden County (this page) 428 7.5%
Essex County 395 17.2%
Bristol County 384 6.5%
Norfolk County 343 5%

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).

Similar average build year

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

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

Good-condition bridges (73)

HWY SARGEANT ST

Good

Over: WATER FIRST LEVEL CANAL

.4 MI NW OF 3RD CANAL, Hampden, MA

Built 1909 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 6,724

ST116 SPRNGFLD ST

Good

Over: WATER CHICOPEE RIVER

AT INT OF GRANBY RD, Hampden, MA

Built 1931 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 33,164

HWY N LOOMIS ST

Good

Over: WATER SHURTLEFF BROOK

0.9 MI N ST 57, Hampden, MA

Built 2018 Load: 51.8 t ADT: 1,085

HWY SMITH RD

Good

Over: WATER M BR WESTFIELD RIV

AT JCT. W/ E. RIVER ROAD, Hampden, MA

Built 2009 Load: 52.3 t ADT: 129

ST 57 MAIN RD

Good

Over: WATER HUBBARDS RIVER

AT TOLLAND TOWN LINE, Hampden, MA

Built 1956 Load: 54.8 t ADT: 1,034

HWY ROOSEVELT AV

Good

Over: RR CSX

0.7 MI SOUTH OF I-291, Hampden, MA

Built 2013 Load: 56.3 t ADT: 21,900

US202 NB/BEECH ST

Good

Over: RR GWRR

JCT LYMAN ST., Hampden, MA

Built 2013 Load: 58.3 t ADT: 27,284

US 20 SPRINGFLD RD

Good

Over: WATER WESTFIELD RIVER

.1 M E JCT ST 187, Hampden, MA

Built 2005 Load: 58.4 t ADT: 20,504

HWY LYMN BRNS RD

Good

Over: WATER BLODGETT MILL BRK

BY WARREN LN NEAR I90, Hampden, MA

Built 1956 Load: 58.6 t ADT: 100

HWY HAMPDEN ST

Good

Over: WATER WALKER BROOK

AT ROUTE 20 INTERSECTION, Hampden, MA

Built 2006 Load: 59.2 t ADT: 129

HWY N BLNDFRD RD

Good

Over: WATER PEEBLE BROOK

200W. OF INT.W/BLAIR RD., Hampden, MA

Built 1994 Load: 61.3 t ADT: 388

HWY LYMAN ST

Good

Over: WATER SECOND LEVEL CANAL

AT JCT RACE ST., Hampden, MA

Built 2010 Load: 61.3 t ADT: 3,724

HWY SILVER ST

Good

Over: WATER TWELVEMILE BROOK

1.75 M SOUTH OF RT 20, Hampden, MA

Built 2019 Load: 64.8 t ADT: 220

US 20 W MAIN ST

Good

Over: WATER BR WALKER BROOK

MILE MARKER 33.9, Hampden, MA

Built 2013 Load: 68.0 t ADT: 2,008

HWY ROOSEVELT AV

Good

Over: RR CSX SPUR

0.5 MI S OF RTE 291, Hampden, MA

Built 2013 Load: 71.5 t ADT: 25,153

US 20 BRIMFIELD RD

Good

Over: COMB ST67 NB & CSX

AT JCT OF ST 67 & US 20, Hampden, MA

Built 2008 Load: 78.7 t ADT: 13,577

HWY WATER ST

Good

Over: WATER TRUMBLE BROOK

0.4 MI WEST OF RTE 189, Hampden, MA

Built 1938 Load: 79.1 t ADT: 259

I 90

Good

Over: WATER COOLEY BROOK

MM 50.2 ON I-90, Hampden, MA

Built 1957 Load: 81.0 t ADT: 56,582

HWY OLD STATE HW

Good

Over: WATER W BR WESTFIELD RIV

0.2MI NE OF JCT W/ RTE 20, Hampden, MA

Built 1910 Load: 90.4 t ADT: 388

HWY COLEBRK RIV

Good

Over: WATER CRANBERRY POND BRK

2 MI S. OF RTE 57, Hampden, MA

Built 2020 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 120

HWY E BRIMFLD RD

Good

Over: WATER QUINEBAUG RIVER

2.3 MI S OF RTE 20, Hampden, MA

Built 1959 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 605

US 20 HUNTNGTON RD

Good

Over: WATER POTASH BROOK

300 S. OF INT W/ RTE 23, Hampden, MA

Built 1959 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 14,224

I 91

Good

Over: WATER MILL RIVER CONDUIT

.1 M N JCT MAIN ST., Hampden, MA

Built 1961 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 107,542

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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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.