County profile · official public datasets

Bernalillo County, NM

496 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 28% rated Good, 70.4% Fair, 1.6% Poor.

496
Public bridges: 28%
Good condition: 1.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Bernalillo County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 34%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.6%
Poor-condition share: 496
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Bernalillo County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bernalillo County ranks #11 of 32 New Mexico counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.6%). Bernalillo County, New Mexico contains 496 public highway bridges. Roughly 28% are rated “Good,” 70.4% “Fair,” and 1.6% “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

496

Public highway bridges in Bernalillo County

Good condition

28%

139 of 496 rated 7-9

Fair condition

70.4%

349 of 496 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.6%

8 of 496 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#11 of 32

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

Condition distribution

Share of 496 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

28% (139)

Fair

70.4% (349)

Poor

1.6% (8)

Bernalillo County's Poor-condition bridges carry 520,320 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 65,040 crossings a day against 47,043 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 496 of 496 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

33.5% of Bernalillo County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

166 of the 496 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 28% 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 23.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-25 NBL over Avenida Cesar Chavez, built 1961, carries 122,928 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 520,320 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

3
1940s

5
1950s

18
1960s

100
1970s

106
1980s

71
1990s

81
2000s

84
2010s

26
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 106 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 10 years newer than the New Mexico average of 1973.

How Bernalillo County compares with New Mexico's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 New Mexico counties nearest Bernalillo County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.6% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 9 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 31 New Mexico counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bernalillo County and the 5 New Mexico counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bernalillo County (this page)	496	28%	70.4%	1.6%	1983
McKinley County	289	36.7%	55%	8.3%	1976
Doña Ana County	261	31.4%	65.5%	3.1%	1975
Santa Fe County	255	44.3%	54.1%	1.6%	1979
Socorro County	188	16.5%	76.1%	7.4%	1961
Sandoval County	182	40.7%	54.4%	4.9%	1979

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NM (496 bridges here).

Oneida County, NY · 496 bridges
Vermilion County, IL · 494 bridges
Greene County, MO · 493 bridges
Canadian County, OK · 493 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NM (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 496 Good 139 Fair 349 Poor 8

All bridges (496)

Sort:

Bernalillo County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bernalillo County's Poor-condition bridges carry 520,320 vehicle crossings a day

33.5% of Bernalillo County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 23.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bernalillo County compares with New Mexico'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 (496)

FR-4058

FL-4005

I-25 NBL/SBL

FL-4053

FL-4053

FL-5061

FL-4048

FL-5015

FL-5015

FL-5127

FL-5014

FL-5014

FL-5016

FL-5016

FL-5016

FL-4065

IRR/NM-147

Louisiana Blvd NE

FL-4057

I-40 EBL/WBL

FR 4058

I-40 EBL/WBL

I-40 EBL

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

IA-4175

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

01Z000

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

NM-333

FL-4053

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

FL-4016

FL-4016

Bridge street

FL-4014

I-40 EBL/WBL

I-40 EBL/WBL

FL-4061

FL-4063

FL-4061

FL-5935

FL-4063

Related