County profile · official public datasets

Cheshire County, NH

192 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.7% rated Good, 46.9% Fair, 11.5% Poor.

192
Public bridges: 41.7%
Good condition: 11.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cheshire County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

10th
of 10 on Poor share: 11.5%
Poor-condition share: 192
public highway bridges: 1960
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.

Cheshire County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cheshire County ranks #10 of 10 New Hampshire counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 11.5%). Cheshire County, New Hampshire contains 192 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.7% are rated “Good,” 46.9% “Fair,” and 11.5% “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

192

Public highway bridges in Cheshire County

Good condition

41.7%

80 of 192 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.9%

90 of 192 rated 5-6

Poor condition

11.5%

22 of 192 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#10 of 10

Among New Hampshire counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 192 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41.7% (80)

Fair

46.9% (90)

Poor

11.5% (22)

Cheshire County's Poor-condition bridges carry 72,342 vehicle crossings a day

That is 10.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 11.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,288 crossings a day against 3,736 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 192 of 192 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

64.6% of Cheshire County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

124 of the 192 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 41.7% 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 15.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NH101 over OTTER BROOK, built 1933, carries 11,367 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 72,342 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

7
1900s

3
1910s

2
1920s

14
1930s

31
1940s

17
1950s

18
1960s

27
1970s

14
1980s

13
1990s

12
2000s

14
2010s

15
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 31 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1960, 8 years older than the New Hampshire average of 1968.

How Cheshire County compares with New Hampshire's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 New Hampshire counties nearest Cheshire County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 11.5% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1960 against a peer-group mean of 1967 is 7 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 9 New Hampshire counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Cheshire County and the 5 New Hampshire counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Carroll County	193	54.9%	40.9%	4.1%	1966
Cheshire County (this page)	192	41.7%	46.9%	11.5%	1960
Coos County	188	49.5%	44.1%	6.4%	1964
Sullivan County	158	45.6%	49.4%	5.1%	1963
Strafford County	136	63.2%	27.9%	8.8%	1971
Belknap County	112	58%	37.5%	4.5%	1969

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 Cheshire 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 Cheshire County, both outside New Hampshire so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NH (192 bridges here).

Barbour County, AL · 192 bridges
El Dorado County, CA · 192 bridges
Santa Cruz County, CA · 192 bridges
Morgan County, CO · 192 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NH (1960 here).

Windham County, VT · avg 1960 · 337 bridges
Plymouth County, MA · avg 1960 · 287 bridges
Washington County, NY · avg 1960 · 189 bridges
Cherokee County, AL · avg 1960 · 167 bridges

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

All 192 Good 80 Fair 90 Poor 22

Poor-condition bridges (22)

Sort:

Cheshire County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Cheshire County's Poor-condition bridges carry 72,342 vehicle crossings a day

64.6% of Cheshire County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 15.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Cheshire County compares with New Hampshire's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Poor-condition bridges (22)

SOUTH ROAD

WHIPPLE HILL ROAD

CHRISTIAN HILL RD

BRIDGE STREET

TEMPLETON TURNPIKE

WHITCOMB MILLS RD

NH 12

HILL ROAD

REC AREA ACCESS RD

REC AREA ACCESS RD

NH 12

CHESHAM ROAD

NUTTING ROAD

NH119

SCOTLAND ROAD

NH101

RIVER ROAD SOUTH

NH 32

RECYCLE WAY

NH119

NH 12

MAPLE AVE

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