County profile · official public datasets

Chautauqua County, NY

559 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44% rated Good, 46.3% Fair, 9.7% Poor.

559
Public bridges: 44%
Good condition: 9.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Chautauqua 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 50%
lowest Poor share in state: 9.7%
Poor-condition share: 559
public highway bridges: 1977
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.

Chautauqua County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Chautauqua County ranks #31 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.7%). Chautauqua County, New York contains 559 public highway bridges. Roughly 44% are rated “Good,” 46.3% “Fair,” and 9.7% “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

559

Public highway bridges in Chautauqua County

Good condition

44%

246 of 559 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.3%

259 of 559 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.7%

54 of 559 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#31 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 559 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

44% (246)

Fair

46.3% (259)

Poor

9.7% (54)

Chautauqua County's Poor-condition bridges carry 94,849 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,824 crossings a day against 2,396 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 556 of 559 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

44.2% of Chautauqua County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

247 of the 559 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% 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 15.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE I86 over BALL CREEK CHAUTAUQUA L, built 1982, carries 15,071 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 54-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 94,849 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

1
1910s

2
1920s

10
1930s

43
1940s

13
1950s

101
1960s

34
1970s

73
1980s

77
1990s

91
2000s

55
2010s

47
2020s

10

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 101 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1977, 5 years newer than the New York average of 1972.

How Chautauqua County compares with New York's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 New York counties nearest Chautauqua County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.7% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 61 New York counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Chautauqua County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Steuben County	627	41.5%	54.4%	4.1%	1984
Monroe County	615	36.4%	52.7%	10.9%	1975
Chautauqua County (this page)	559	44%	46.3%	9.7%	1977
Queens County	514	30.4%	62.3%	7.4%	1966
Oneida County	496	46.2%	42.3%	11.5%	1972
Cattaraugus County	484	55.4%	38.4%	6.2%	1982

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (559 bridges here).

Larimer County, CO · 559 bridges
Yakima County, WA · 558 bridges
Pottawattamie County, IA · 557 bridges
Shawnee County, KS · 563 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1977 here).

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 559 Good 246 Fair 259 Poor 54

Fair-condition bridges (259)

Sort:

Chautauqua County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Chautauqua County's Poor-condition bridges carry 94,849 vehicle crossings a day

44.2% of Chautauqua County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 15.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Chautauqua County compares with New York's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Fair-condition bridges (259)

RTE I86

RTE 954

COUNTY ROAD 77

COUNTY ROAD 9

CR 78

WEBBER ROAD

RTE 90

RTE 950D

RTE 954J

COUNTY ROAD 66

COUNTY ROAD 89

SOUTH WORK STREET

RTE 950D

RTE 5

RTE 60

RTE 60

RTE 76

PEARL STREET

RTE I86

WILSON HOLLOW RD

RTE I86

COUNTY ROAD 77

WALKER RD

RTE I86

LAKESIDE DRIVE

FOX ROAD

RTE 430

RTE I86

RTE I86

HEWES ROAD

KNOWLTON RD

COUNTY ROAD 33

CLELAND ROAD

COUNTY ROAD 4

KING ROAD

MATHEWS RD

RTE 394

RTE I86

RTE I86

ORR STREET

DAMON HILL ROAD

COUNTY ROAD 91

RTE 60

RTE 430

BEAR LAKE ROAD

RTE 394

NAZARETH ROAD

RTE I90

MEADOWS ROAD

RTE 430

Related