Total bridges
241
Public highway bridges in Ocean County
County profile · official public datasets
Ocean County, NJ
241 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45.6% rated Good, 51.5% Fair, 2.9% Poor.
- 241
- Public bridges
- 45.6%
- Good condition
- 2.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Ocean County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 19%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 241
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- 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.
Ocean County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ocean County ranks #4 of 21 New Jersey counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.9%). Ocean County, New Jersey contains 241 public highway bridges. Roughly 45.6% are rated “Good,” 51.5% “Fair,” and 2.9% “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
45.6%
110 of 241 rated 7-9
Fair condition
51.5%
124 of 241 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.9%
7 of 241 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#4 of 21
Among New Jersey counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 241 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 45.6% (110)
Fair 51.5% (124)
Poor 2.9% (7)
Ocean County's Poor-condition bridges carry 100,073 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 14,296 crossings a day against 25,204 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 241 of 241 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
37.3% of Ocean County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
90 of the 241 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 45.6% 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 34.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
NJ 35 over WILLS HOLE MANASQUAN RIV, built 1950, carries 34,451 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 100,073 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Ocean County's bridges were built
241 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 3
1900–1909
3 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 6
1920–1929
6 bridges
- 1930s 10
1930–1939
10 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
33 bridges
- 1960s 14
1960–1969
14 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
37 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
27 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
28 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
24 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
48 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 48 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 15 years newer than the New Jersey average of 1966.
How Ocean County compares with New Jersey's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 New Jersey counties nearest Ocean County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is 16 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 20 New Jersey counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warren County | 268 | 19.4% | 76.1% | 4.5% | 1952 |
| Camden County | 261 | 20.7% | 72.8% | 6.5% | 1963 |
| Gloucester County | 243 | 31.3% | 66.3% | 2.5% | 1967 |
| Ocean County (this page) | 241 | 45.6% | 51.5% | 2.9% | 1981 |
| Atlantic County | 207 | 36.2% | 58% | 5.8% | 1975 |
| Hudson County | 202 | 21.3% | 72.3% | 6.4% | 1966 |
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 Ocean 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 Ocean County, both outside New Jersey so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NJ (241 bridges here).
- Sumter County, AL · 241 bridges
- Hardin County, IA · 241 bridges
- Iowa County, IA · 241 bridges
- Barber County, KS · 241 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NJ (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (110)
GSP NB
GoodOver: STAFFORD FORGE RD(CR606)
3.8 MI SW OF NJ72&GSP JCT, Ocean, NJ
Built 1954 Load: 75.8 t ADT: 25,492
GSP SB
GoodOver: SHORDS MILL BRANCH
1.3 MI S OF CR539&GSP JCT, Ocean, NJ
Built 1954 Load: 76.1 t ADT: 37,753
NJ 37
GoodOver: UNION BR OF TOMS RIVER
0.3 MILES EAST OF NJ 70, Ocean, NJ
Built 1991 Load: 78.9 t ADT: 28,081
GSP SB
GoodOver: STAFFORD FORGE RD(CR606)
3.8 MI SW OF RT72&GSP JCT, Ocean, NJ
Built 1954 Load: 81.3 t ADT: 27,574
WRANGLE BROOK ROAD
GoodOver: UNION BRANCH TOMS RIVER
0.15 MI S. Brown & RT 37, Ocean, NJ
Built 2000 Load: 81.6 t ADT: 50
NJ Route 88
GoodOver: N. Br. Metedeconk River
0.14 MI EAST OF GSP JCT, Ocean, NJ
Built 1987 Load: 87.1 t ADT: 130,468
BOWMAN ROAD
GoodOver: MAIN BRANCH TOMS RIVER
0.64 MI. W. OF CO. 527, Ocean, NJ
Built 2012 Load: 92.0 t ADT: 1,938
RT 571
GoodOver: Main Branch Toms River
4.00 MI. S. OF I-195, Ocean, NJ
Built 2014 Load: 96.9 t ADT: 12,613
CR10(OLD SQUAN RD)
GoodOver: SO BR BEAVER DAM CREEK
0.33 MI NE OF ROUTE 88, Ocean, NJ
Built 1999 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 4,393
I-195
GoodOver: BRANCH OF TOMS RIVER
0.72 MI E OF CR537, Ocean, NJ
Built 1970 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 53,305
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.