Total bridges
906
Public highway bridges in Erie County
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.
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.
When Erie County's bridges were built
906 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 2
Built before 1900
2 bridges
- 1900s 5
1900–1909
5 bridges
- 1910s 4
1910–1919
4 bridges
- 1920s 38
1920–1929
38 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
62 bridges
- 1940s 15
1940–1949
15 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
145 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
142 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
90 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
129 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
123 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
79 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
65 bridges
- 2020s 7
2020–2029
7 bridges
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.
| 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 bridges (906)
RTE 400
PoorOver: MAPLE STREET
1.2 MI E JCT SH400 &SH242, Erie, NY
Built 1968 Load: 52.6 t ADT: 7,922
RTE 5
PoorOver: 198 198 53011029 RTE 19
JCT SH 5 & SH 198, Erie, NY
Built 1952 Load: 53.5 t ADT: 15,074
GRIDER STREET
PoorOver: 33 33 53011049 RTE 33
3.9 MI NE JCT RTS 33 + 5, Erie, NY
Built 1968 Load: 56.2 t ADT: 8,368
LAKE SHORE ROAD
PoorOver: LITTLE SISTER CRK
1.3 MI NW OF EVANS CENTER, Erie, NY
Built 1927 Load: 59.9 t ADT: 1,242
MARSHFIELD ROAD
PoorOver: N BR CLEAR CREEK
3 MI S OF NORTH COLLINS, Erie, NY
Built 1935 Load: 60.8 t ADT: 65
FOUR ROD ROAD
PoorOver: CAYUGA CREEK
1.1 MI SE JCT 20358, Erie, NY
Built 1954 Load: 75.2 t ADT: 1,212
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.