County profile · official public datasets

Worcester County, MA

1,014 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25.5% rated Good, 66.9% Fair, 7.6% Poor.

Compiled by PlainBridges

1,014
Public bridges: 25.5%
Good condition: 7.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Worcester County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.

7th
of 13 on Poor share: 7.6%
Poor-condition share: 1,014
public highway bridges: 1963
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.

Worcester County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Worcester County ranks #7 of 13 Massachusetts counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.6%). Worcester County, Massachusetts contains 1,014 public highway bridges. Roughly 25.5% are rated “Good,” 66.9% “Fair,” and 7.6% “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

1,014

Public highway bridges in Worcester County

Good condition

25.5%

259 of 1,014 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.9%

678 of 1,014 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.6%

77 of 1,014 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#7 of 13

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

Condition distribution

Share of 1,014 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

25.5% (259)

Fair

66.9% (678)

Poor

7.6% (77)

Worcester County's Poor-condition bridges carry 959,932 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 12,467 crossings a day against 11,673 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 1,013 of 1,014 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

65.6% of Worcester County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

665 of the 1,014 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 25.5% 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 6.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I 290 EB over HWY E CENTRAL ST, built 1958, carries 65,611 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 77-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 959,932 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

29
1900s

42
1910s

11
1920s

15
1930s

107
1940s

40
1950s

224
1960s

167
1970s

124
1980s

62
1990s

61
2000s

63
2010s

53
2020s

16

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 224 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1963) matches the Massachusetts average (1961).

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

The 5 Massachusetts counties nearest Worcester County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.6% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1960 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Worcester County and the 5 Massachusetts counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Worcester County (this page)	1,014	25.5%	66.9%	7.6%	1963
Middlesex County	818	20.7%	68.2%	11.1%	1958
Suffolk County	489	22.7%	67.7%	9.6%	1967
Berkshire County	450	34.7%	57.6%	7.8%	1961
Hampden County	428	17.1%	75.5%	7.5%	1956
Essex County	395	15.9%	66.8%	17.2%	1957

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside MA (1,014 bridges here).

Lane County, OR · 1,010 bridges
Wayne County, MI · 1,026 bridges
Denton County, TX · 991 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · 1,057 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside MA (1963 here).

Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
Essex County, NJ · avg 1963 · 505 bridges
Passaic County, NJ · avg 1963 · 333 bridges

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

All 1,014 Good 259 Fair 678 Poor 77

All bridges (1,014)

Sort:

Worcester County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Worcester County's Poor-condition bridges carry 959,932 vehicle crossings a day

65.6% of Worcester County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 6.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Worcester 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

All bridges (1,014)

HWY BRIDGE ST

HWY LAKESHORE DR

HWY RIVERLIN ST

HWY UPPER PERRVL

ST 32 /ST122/BARRE

ST140

ST 31 WACHUSETT ST

HWY MECHANIC ST

ST146 SB ON RAMP

HWY COTTAGE ST

ST146 NB OFF RAMP

HWY RIVER ST

HWY MILL ST

HWY CENTRAL ST

HWY ALLEN ST

HWY BOWDOIN ST

ST 32 S BARRE RD

ST146 SB

ST146 NB

ST146 SB OFF RAMP

ST 31 NEW SPNCR RD

ST 2

HWY MUDDY POND

I 290

HWY PLEASANT ST

HWY PERRYVLLE RD

HWY BRIDGE ST

I 395 SB

HWY ALPINE DR

HWY 5TH MASS TPK

HWY BATTLES RD

ST 68 E COUNTY RD

HWY OXBOW RD

I 395 NB

HWY MAIN ST

HWY FOSTER HL RD

HWY BALL HILL RD

HWY CENTRAL ST

HWY CENTRAL ST

HWY CANAL ST

ST 2 EB

ST 2 WB

HWY EXETER ST

HWY OLD NOURS ST

ST 2 A/ST12/KIMBL

HWY PAXTON RD

ST 68 BLDWNVLLE RD

HWY DEPOT RD

HWY VERNON AVE

HWY CENTRAL ST

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