County profile · official public datasets

Passaic County, NJ

333 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 22.2% rated Good, 74.5% Fair, 3.3% Poor.

333
Public bridges: 22.2%
Good condition: 3.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Passaic County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 24%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.3%
Poor-condition share: 333
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.

Passaic County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Passaic County ranks #5 of 21 New Jersey counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.3%). Passaic County, New Jersey contains 333 public highway bridges. Roughly 22.2% are rated “Good,” 74.5% “Fair,” and 3.3% “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

333

Public highway bridges in Passaic County

Good condition

22.2%

74 of 333 rated 7-9

Fair condition

74.5%

248 of 333 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.3%

11 of 333 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#5 of 21

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

Condition distribution

Share of 333 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

22.2% (74)

Fair

74.5% (248)

Poor

3.3% (11)

Passaic County's Poor-condition bridges carry 417,059 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 37,914 crossings a day against 34,817 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 333 of 333 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

71.5% of Passaic County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

238 of the 333 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 22.2% 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 33.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-80 over Pas Riv McBride & Rvrvw, built 1969, carries 139,551 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 417,059 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

3
1900s

14
1910s

12
1920s

16
1930s

30
1940s

17
1950s

58
1960s

58
1970s

33
1980s

15
1990s

38
2000s

21
2010s

14
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 58 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.4% 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 New Jersey average (1966).

How Passaic County compares with New Jersey's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 New Jersey counties nearest Passaic County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.3% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1961 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 20 New Jersey counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Passaic County and the 5 New Jersey counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Somerset County	397	33%	57.4%	9.6%	1970
Hunterdon County	373	20.1%	72.4%	7.5%	1949
Burlington County	356	26.4%	63.5%	10.1%	1969
Passaic County (this page)	333	22.2%	74.5%	3.3%	1963
Warren County	268	19.4%	76.1%	4.5%	1952
Camden County	261	20.7%	72.8%	6.5%	1963

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NJ (333 bridges here).

Goodhue County, MN · 333 bridges
Vernon County, WI · 333 bridges
Boone County, MO · 334 bridges
Dodge County, NE · 334 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.

All 333 Good 74 Fair 248 Poor 11

All bridges (333)

Sort:

Passaic County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Passaic County's Poor-condition bridges carry 417,059 vehicle crossings a day

71.5% of Passaic County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 33.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Passaic County compares with New Jersey'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 (333)

N.J.ROUTE 23 SBND.

MADISON AV(CR 649)

RAMP G

CR 511 (UNION AVE)

JACKSON AVE(CR680)

SPRUCE STREET

NJ 23 SB RMP B C D

WILLOW BROOK BLVD

I-80 RAMP B

I-80 RAMPS E & F

NJ19 SB RMP TO GSP

NJ ROUTE 21

ROUTE NJ21 &RAMP N

LAKEVIEW AVE

EAST SHORE RD(704)

McBride Ave. Ext.

NJ 208

LONG HILL RD CR631

US 46

NJ 23 NORTHBOUND

ROUTE I-80 RAMP A

I-80 RAMP A

ROUTE NJ 19

NJ 23 NB

I-287

NJ 23

BROADWAY (CR 622)

I-80 RAMP B

HOPE AVENUE

WEST BROADWAY(673)

WEST BROOK ROAD

Lake Shore Drive

KINGSLAND AVENUE

RAMP 3 (3 TO 21NB)

NJ ROUTE 21

NJ ROUTE 21

NJ 23 NB & RAMP A

PAT-HAM TPK(CR689)

PRESIDENT STREET

WILLARD STREET

(I-80) RAMP A

NJ 208 RAMP A

US 46 RAMP D

CR 677(CHURCH ST)

RAMP 5 (21NB TO 3)

23 SB

I-80 WB & RAMP"H"

LINCOLN AV (CR 504

NJ 23 SOUTHBOUND

DAVIDSON STREET

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