County profile · official public datasets

Santa Fe County, NM

255 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44.3% rated Good, 54.1% Fair, 1.6% Poor.

255
Public bridges: 44.3%
Good condition: 1.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Santa Fe 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 31%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.6%
Poor-condition share: 255
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Santa Fe County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Santa Fe County ranks #10 of 32 New Mexico counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.6%). Santa Fe County, New Mexico contains 255 public highway bridges. Roughly 44.3% are rated “Good,” 54.1% “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

255

Public highway bridges in Santa Fe County

Good condition

44.3%

113 of 255 rated 7-9

Fair condition

54.1%

138 of 255 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.6%

4 of 255 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#10 of 32

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

Condition distribution

Share of 255 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

44.3% (113)

Fair

54.1% (138)

Poor

1.6% (4)

Santa Fe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 106,790 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.7% 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 26,698 crossings a day against 11,630 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 254 of 255 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

45.5% of Santa Fe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

116 of the 255 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 44.3% 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 31.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-25 NBL over SF Southern R/R, built 1974, carries 33,451 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 106,790 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

18
1940s

23
1950s

15
1960s

19
1970s

61
1980s

21
1990s

36
2000s

38
2010s

18
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 61 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 6 years newer than the New Mexico average of 1973.

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

The 5 New Mexico counties nearest Santa Fe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Santa Fe County and the 5 New Mexico counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
McKinley County	289	36.7%	55%	8.3%	1976
Doña Ana County	261	31.4%	65.5%	3.1%	1975
Santa Fe County (this page)	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
San Miguel County	175	41.1%	50.9%	8%	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 Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe County, both outside New Mexico so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NM (255 bridges here).

Marion County, AL · 255 bridges
Osceola County, FL · 255 bridges
Marshall County, MS · 255 bridges
Nuckolls County, NE · 255 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NM (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 255 Good 113 Fair 138 Poor 4

Good-condition bridges (113)

Sort:

Santa Fe County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Santa Fe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 106,790 vehicle crossings a day

45.5% of Santa Fe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 31.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Santa Fe 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

Good-condition bridges (113)

N. Paseo Del Ange

County Rd 91A

NM-14

US-285

US-285

NM-14

49-0073

IRR/US-84/285

US-285

US-285

US-285

US-84/285

FR-8403

FL-4797

FL-4805

49-0072

US-84/285

US-84/285

US-84/285

US-84/285

I-40 EBL

I-40 WBL

NM-599/NBL

NM-599/SBL

I-25 NBL

IRR/US-84/285

US-84/285

IRR/NM-502

NM-14

NM-4

FL-4777

I-25 NBL/SBL

US-84/285

US-84/285

NM-30

FL-4734

US-84

I-25 NBL

FL-4807

US-84

US-84

IRR/NM-30

I-25 NBL/SBL

I-25 SBL

NM-4

NM-344

NM-16

FL-4727

I-25 SBL

I-25 NBL

Related