Total bridges
409
Public highway bridges in Union County
County profile · official public datasets
Union County, NJ
409 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 17.8% rated Good, 78% Fair, 4.2% Poor.
- 409
- Public bridges
- 17.8%
- Good condition
- 4.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Union County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 29%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 4.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 409
- public highway bridges
- 1967
- 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.
Union County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Union County ranks #6 of 21 New Jersey counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.2%). Union County, New Jersey contains 409 public highway bridges. Roughly 17.8% are rated “Good,” 78% “Fair,” and 4.2% “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
17.8%
73 of 409 rated 7-9
Fair condition
78%
319 of 409 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4.2%
17 of 409 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#6 of 21
Among New Jersey counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 409 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 17.8% (73)
Fair 78% (319)
Poor 4.2% (17)
Union County's Poor-condition bridges carry 352,273 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 20,722 crossings a day against 30,191 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 408 of 409 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
66.5% of Union County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
272 of the 409 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 17.8% 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 20.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US 22 over ECHO LAKE, built 1929, carries 73,690 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 17-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 352,273 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Union County's bridges were built
409 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 2
Built before 1900
2 bridges
- 1900s 8
1900–1909
8 bridges
- 1910s 9
1910–1919
9 bridges
- 1920s 22
1920–1929
22 bridges
- 1930s 17
1930–1939
17 bridges
- 1940s 19
1940–1949
19 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
67 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
72 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
83 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
43 bridges
- 1990s 17
1990–1999
17 bridges
- 2000s 20
2000–2009
20 bridges
- 2010s 24
2010–2019
24 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 83 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1967) matches the New Jersey average (1966).
How Union County compares with New Jersey's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 New Jersey counties nearest Union County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.2% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1965 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 20 New Jersey counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercer County | 414 | 40.3% | 50.5% | 9.2% | 1975 |
| Union County (this page) | 409 | 17.8% | 78% | 4.2% | 1967 |
| 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 | 333 | 22.2% | 74.5% | 3.3% | 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 Union 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 Union County, both outside New Jersey so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NJ (409 bridges here).
- Benton County, AR · 410 bridges
- Pottawatomie County, OK · 408 bridges
- Jefferson County, MO · 411 bridges
- Pittsburg County, OK · 411 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NJ (1967 here).
- Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
- Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
- Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
- Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (409)
CR577
PoorOver: US 22
2.4 MI WEST OF I-78, Union, NJ
Built 1940 Load: 31.8 t ADT: 14,869
PASSAIC ST.-CR 647
PoorOver: PASSAIC RIVER
0.5 MI NORTH OF CR 512, Union, NJ
Built 1976 Load: 31.8 t ADT: 10,958
VAUXHALL Rd CR630
PoorOver: US 22
0.89mi N. of CR 509, Union, NJ
Built 1940 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 15,270
NJ 124
PoorOver: I-78 & RAMP ED
AT I-78 & NJ 124 JCT, Union, NJ
Built 1967 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 13,730
NORTH AVE EB
PoorOver: NJTPK&RAMP TN
2.81 MI S OF INT. 14, Union, NJ
Built 1951 Load: 44.5 t ADT: 18,815
Broad St CR512 SB
PoorOver: NJ 24
At Intch 9A of NJ 24, Union, NJ
Built 1967 Load: 47.2 t ADT: 10,200
I-78 WB
PoorOver: QUARRY RD.
0.9 MI W OF 78-24 JCT, Union, NJ
Built 1967 Load: 48.1 t ADT: 45,520
US 22 WB
PoorOver: NJ 82
0.3 MI EAST OF GSP JCT, Union, NJ
Built 1953 Load: 49.0 t ADT: 31,623
NORTH AVE EB
PoorOver: CENTRAL RR OF NJ-CONRAIL
0.15 MI E OF NJTPK, Union, NJ
Built 1951 Load: 56.2 t ADT: 18,815
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.