County profile · official public datasets

Guadalupe County, NM

82 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 23.2% rated Good, 67.1% Fair, 9.8% Poor.

82
Public bridges: 23.2%
Good condition: 9.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Guadalupe County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

30th
of 32 on Poor share: 9.8%
Poor-condition share: 82
public highway bridges: 1966
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.

Guadalupe County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Guadalupe County ranks #30 of 32 New Mexico counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.8%). Guadalupe County, New Mexico contains 82 public highway bridges. Roughly 23.2% are rated “Good,” 67.1% “Fair,” and 9.8% “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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Guadalupe County

Good condition

23.2%

19 of 82 rated 7-9

Fair condition

67.1%

55 of 82 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.8%

8 of 82 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#30 of 32

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

Condition distribution

Share of 82 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

23.2% (19)

Fair

67.1% (55)

Poor

9.8% (8)

Guadalupe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 7,772 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 972 crossings a day against 4,643 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 82 of 82 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

76.8% of Guadalupe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

63 of the 82 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 23.2% 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 39% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US-60/285 WBL over Union Pacific Railroad, built 1979, carries 3,029 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 7,772 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

13
1950s

11
1960s

20
1970s

24
1980s

7
1990s

2
2000s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 24 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 7 years older than the New Mexico average of 1973.

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

The 5 New Mexico counties nearest Guadalupe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.8% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 5 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Guadalupe County and the 5 New Mexico counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Taos County	94	38.3%	51.1%	10.6%	1971
Eddy County	93	41.9%	58.1%	0%	1978
Guadalupe County (this page)	82	23.2%	67.1%	9.8%	1966
Mora County	79	32.9%	59.5%	7.6%	1971
Torrance County	70	44.3%	50%	5.7%	1963
Union County	68	55.9%	41.2%	2.9%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NM (82 bridges here).

Murray County, GA · 82 bridges
Gallatin County, IL · 82 bridges
Thomas County, KS · 82 bridges
Nicholas County, KY · 82 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NM (1966 here).

Butler County, KS · avg 1966 · 591 bridges
Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Queens County, NY · avg 1966 · 514 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges

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

All 82 Good 19 Fair 55 Poor 8

All bridges (82)

Sort:

Guadalupe County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Guadalupe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 7,772 vehicle crossings a day

76.8% of Guadalupe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 39% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Guadalupe 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 (82)

19-040U

19-040U

NM-119

US-54

US-60

US-60

19-002Q

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

I-40 EBL

L-00035

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

L-00035

NM-156

NM-156

NM-219

NM-219

I-40 WBL

I-40 WBL

I-40 EBL

NM-156

NM-156

I-40 WBL

US-54/60 EBL

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

FR-4102

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

I-40 EBL/WBL

I-40 EBL/WBL/FRTGE

NM-91

I-40 EBL/WBL

I-40 EBL/WBL

NM-119

19Z000

I-40 EBL/WBL

FR-4088

I-40 WBL

US-54

US-54/60/285

19-Z003

19-03BA

US-54

FL-5801

NM-219

L-00035

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