County profile · official public datasets

Erie County, NY

906 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.9% rated Good, 53.4% Fair, 8.7% Poor.

906
Public bridges: 37.9%
Good condition: 8.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Erie County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across large county bridge inventory.

Top 44%
lowest Poor share in state: 8.7%
Poor-condition share: 906
public highway bridges: 1973
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.

Erie County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Erie County ranks #27 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.7%). Erie County, New York contains 906 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.9% are rated “Good,” 53.4% “Fair,” and 8.7% “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

906

Public highway bridges in Erie County

Good condition

37.9%

343 of 906 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53.4%

484 of 906 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8.7%

79 of 906 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#27 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 906 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

37.9% (343)

Fair

53.4% (484)

Poor

8.7% (79)

Erie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 723,416 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 9,519 crossings a day against 12,383 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 888 of 906 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

52.2% of Erie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

473 of the 906 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 37.9% 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 17.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE I90 over GALLERIA DRIVE SCAJAQUA, built 1950, carries 126,187 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 79-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 723,416 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

5
1910s

4
1920s

38
1930s

62
1940s

15
1950s

145
1960s

142
1970s

90
1980s

129
1990s

123
2000s

79
2010s

65
2020s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 145 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1973) matches the New York average (1972).

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

The 5 New York counties nearest Erie County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1973 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 Erie County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Erie County (this page)	906	37.9%	53.4%	8.7%	1973
Westchester County	774	23.3%	67.2%	9.6%	1961
Steuben County	627	41.5%	54.4%	4.1%	1984
Monroe County	615	36.4%	52.7%	10.9%	1975
Chautauqua County	559	44%	46.3%	9.7%	1977
Queens County	514	30.4%	62.3%	7.4%	1966

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (906 bridges here).

St. Louis County, MO · 912 bridges
Fresno County, CA · 916 bridges
Milwaukee County, WI · 893 bridges
Franklin County, OH · 922 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1973 here).

Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
Sacramento County, CA · avg 1973 · 740 bridges

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

All 906 Good 343 Fair 484 Poor 79

All bridges (906)

Sort:

Erie County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Erie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 723,416 vehicle crossings a day

52.2% of Erie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 17.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Erie 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

All bridges (906)

DEWEY AVENUE

RTE 5

ZIMMERMAN ROAD

QUAKER STREET

SPRINGV-BOSTON RD

RAPIDS ROAD

EDEN-EVANS CTR RD

CEMETERY ROAD

ZOAR OTTO ROAD

N ELLICOTT CRK RD

RTE 33

RTE 33

GEIGER ROAD

RILEY ST.

EAST CREEK ROAD

NORTH ROAD

RTE 5

ABBOTT ROAD

RTE 78

RTE 249

RTE 20

RTE 277

NEW OREGON ROAD

MIDDLE ROAD

JENNINGS ROAD

RTE 179

South Buffalo Str

WARSAW AVENUE

MILESTRIP RD

CLARKSBURG ROAD

KETCHUM RD

STATE STREET

RTE 324

RANSOM ROAD

RTE 93

MAIN STREET

RTE 20

400 WB to 953C

RTE 33

MILL STREET

WARREN SPAHN WAY

SHARP STREET

YOUNGS ROAD

AERO DRIVE

ENCHANTED FOREST

RTE 240

RTE 391

MILL ROAD

HAMMOND HILL ROAD

RTE I90

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