Total bridges
505
Public highway bridges in Essex County
County profile · official public datasets
Essex County, NJ
505 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 16.2% rated Good, 81% Fair, 2.8% Poor.
- 505
- Public bridges
- 16.2%
- Good condition
- 2.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Essex County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.
- Top 14%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 505
- 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.
Essex County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Essex County ranks #3 of 21 New Jersey counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.8%). Essex County, New Jersey contains 505 public highway bridges. Roughly 16.2% are rated “Good,” 81% “Fair,” and 2.8% “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
16.2%
82 of 505 rated 7-9
Fair condition
81%
409 of 505 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.8%
14 of 505 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#3 of 21
Among New Jersey counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 505 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 16.2% (82)
Fair 81% (409)
Poor 2.8% (14)
Essex County's Poor-condition bridges carry 582,326 vehicle crossings a day
That is 3.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 41,595 crossings a day against 24,931 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 505 of 505 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
72.9% of Essex County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
368 of the 505 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 16.2% 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 22.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
NJTPK SNW&NSW RWY over PASSAIC RIV PCRR CRR CON, built 1970, carries 130,764 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 582,326 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Essex County's bridges were built
505 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 26
1900–1909
26 bridges
- 1910s 15
1910–1919
15 bridges
- 1920s 21
1920–1929
21 bridges
- 1930s 19
1930–1939
19 bridges
- 1940s 19
1940–1949
19 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
95 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
91 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
126 bridges
- 1980s 10
1980–1989
10 bridges
- 1990s 31
1990–1999
31 bridges
- 2000s 28
2000–2009
28 bridges
- 2010s 14
2010–2019
14 bridges
- 2020s 9
2020–2029
9 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 126 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1963) matches the New Jersey average (1966).
How Essex County compares with New Jersey's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 New Jersey counties nearest Essex County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.8% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is 6 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 20 New Jersey counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bergen County | 577 | 19.1% | 76.1% | 4.9% | 1964 |
| Middlesex County | 563 | 23.4% | 72.1% | 4.4% | 1972 |
| Morris County | 508 | 19.7% | 74.4% | 5.9% | 1964 |
| Monmouth County | 505 | 32.9% | 58.2% | 8.9% | 1971 |
| Essex County (this page) | 505 | 16.2% | 81% | 2.8% | 1963 |
| Mercer County | 414 | 40.3% | 50.5% | 9.2% | 1975 |
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 Essex 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 Essex County, both outside New Jersey so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NJ (505 bridges here).
- Linn County, IA · 506 bridges
- Saunders County, NE · 506 bridges
- Garfield County, OK · 504 bridges
- Oakland County, MI · 508 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NJ (1963 here).
- Worcester County, MA · avg 1963 · 1,014 bridges
- Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
- Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
- Northumberland County, PA · avg 1963 · 299 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (14)
CENTRAL AVE CR 508
PoorOver: CITY SUBWAY
1.0 MI SW I-280&NJ21 JCT, Essex, NJ
Built 1908 Load: 8.2 t ADT: 11,720
CLAY STREET
PoorOver: PASSAIC RIVER
0.2 MI NE I-280&NJ21 JCT, Essex, NJ
Built 1908 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 21,490
US 1&9
PoorOver: PASSAIC R NJTPK RR 1&9T
AT US1&9 OVER PASSAIC RVR, Essex, NJ
Built 1932 Load: 15.4 t ADT: 84,212
BRIDGE ST (CR 508)
PoorOver: PASSAIC RIVER
0.3 MI SE I-280&NJ21 JCT, Essex, NJ
Built 1913 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 10,600
RDGWD AVE (CR 653)
PoorOver: CONRAIL (ABND)
2.0MI SW OF GSP EXIT 151, Essex, NJ
Built 1900 Load: 21.8 t ADT: 12,409
VALLEY RD
PoorOver: ROUTE I-280
0.23 MI E OF I280 EXIT 10, Essex, NJ
Built 1971 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 14,995
NJTPK SNW&NSW RWY
PoorOver: PASSAIC RIV PCRR CRR CON
.8 MI S I-280 & NJ TPK, Essex, NJ
Built 1970 Load: 25.3 t ADT: 130,764
NORTH MUNN AVENUE
PoorOver: I-280
0.1 MI W OF I-280-GSP JCT, Essex, NJ
Built 1966 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 5,385
I-78 WB RAMPS
PoorOver: CONRAIL MP 11.25
1.3 M W OF NJTPK, Essex, NJ
Built 1973 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 83,060
I-78EB OUTER RAMPS
PoorOver: CONRAIL (MP 11.33)
3.10 MI EAST OF GSP, Essex, NJ
Built 1972 Load: 38.1 t ADT: 84,700
RAMP 3
PoorOver: RAMPS 2&6 I-78 & RAMP 13
Over I-78 Mainline MP 58, Essex, NJ
Built 1968 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 9,970
I-78 RAMPS 2 & 6
PoorOver: I-78 & I-78 RAMPS 4 &13
0.02 MI E of I-78 EXT 58, Essex, NJ
Built 1968 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 22,775
I-280 WESTBOUND
PoorOver: ORANGE 1ST ST. RAMP NJT
1.2 MI.EAST OF 280-GSP JN, Essex, NJ
Built 1972 Load: 47.2 t ADT: 51,340
I-280 Eastbound
PoorOver: Proposed Essex CO.PK.RD
0.05MI E OF 280-Pass R JT, Essex, NJ
Built 1972 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 38,906
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.