Total bridges
243
Public highway bridges in Columbia County
County profile · official public datasets
Columbia County, NY
243 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 17.7% rated Good, 64.2% Fair, 18.1% Poor.
- 243
- Public bridges
- 17.7%
- Good condition
- 18.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Columbia 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.
- 60th
- of 62 on Poor share
- 18.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 243
- public highway bridges
- 1963
- 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.
Columbia County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Columbia County ranks #60 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 18.1%). Columbia County, New York contains 243 public highway bridges. Roughly 17.7% are rated “Good,” 64.2% “Fair,” and 18.1% “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
17.7%
43 of 243 rated 7-9
Fair condition
64.2%
156 of 243 rated 5-6
Poor condition
18.1%
44 of 243 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#60 of 62
Among New York counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 243 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 17.7% (43)
Fair 64.2% (156)
Poor 18.1% (44)
Columbia County's Poor-condition bridges carry 61,086 vehicle crossings a day
That is 11.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 17.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,454 crossings a day against 2,828 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 238 of 243 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
70.8% of Columbia County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
172 of the 243 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 17.7% 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% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
RTE I90 over COUNTY ROAD 32, built 1958, carries 12,236 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 44-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 61,086 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Columbia County's bridges were built
243 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 2
Built before 1900
2 bridges
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 10
1920–1929
10 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
45 bridges
- 1940s
1940–1949
24 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
57 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
27 bridges
- 1970s 4
1970–1979
4 bridges
- 1980s 15
1980–1989
15 bridges
- 1990s 17
1990–1999
17 bridges
- 2000s 12
2000–2009
12 bridges
- 2010s 21
2010–2019
21 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 57 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1963, 9 years older than the New York average of 1972.
How Columbia County compares with New York's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 New York counties nearest Columbia County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 18.1% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1963 against a peer-group mean of 1963 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 61 New York counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herkimer County | 248 | 46.8% | 41.1% | 12.1% | 1973 |
| Rockland County | 248 | 26.6% | 63.3% | 10.1% | 1970 |
| New York County | 247 | 13.4% | 76.9% | 9.7% | 1945 |
| Columbia County (this page) | 243 | 17.7% | 64.2% | 18.1% | 1963 |
| Kings County | 242 | 24.8% | 64% | 11.2% | 1953 |
| Oswego County | 233 | 28.3% | 61.4% | 10.3% | 1975 |
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 Columbia 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 Columbia County, both outside New York so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NY (243 bridges here).
- Talladega County, AL · 243 bridges
- Newton County, MS · 243 bridges
- Pettis County, MO · 243 bridges
- Gloucester County, NJ · 243 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1963 here).
- Worcester County, MA · avg 1963 · 1,014 bridges
- Honolulu County, HI · avg 1963 · 682 bridges
- Chester County, PA · avg 1963 · 680 bridges
- Essex County, NJ · avg 1963 · 505 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (156)
COUNTY ROAD 21
FairOver: ROELIFF JANSEN KL
.5 MILE NW OF N HILLSDALE, Columbia, NY
Built 1930 Load: 69.9 t ADT: 566
RTE 9H
FairOver: TAGHKANIC CREEK
1.1 MI N JCT RTS 9+9H, Columbia, NY
Built 2016 Load: 71.7 t ADT: 7,362
DECKER RD
FairOver: HOLLOWVILLE CREEK
2.5 MI W JCT SH 23 & TSP, Columbia, NY
Built 1937 Load: 76.2 t ADT: 97
DECKER ROAD
FairOver: HOLLOWVILLE CREEK
1MI WEST OF TACONIC STATE, Columbia, NY
Built 1988 Load: 77.1 t ADT: 97
COUNTY ROAD 34
FairOver: HOLLOW BROOK
1.7 MI S OF WEST LEBANON, Columbia, NY
Built 1945 Load: 83.5 t ADT: 163
RTE 987G
FairOver: KLINE KILL
1.3 MI SE OF CHATHAM, Columbia, NY
Built 1959 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 3,745
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.