County profile · official public datasets

Onondaga County, NY

472 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 29% rated Good, 61% Fair, 10% Poor.

472
Public bridges: 29%
Good condition: 10%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Onondaga County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

35th
of 62 on Poor share: 10%
Poor-condition share: 472
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

Onondaga County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Onondaga County ranks #35 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10%). Onondaga County, New York contains 472 public highway bridges. Roughly 29% are rated “Good,” 61% “Fair,” and 10% “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

472

Public highway bridges in Onondaga County

Good condition

29%

137 of 472 rated 7-9

Fair condition

61%

288 of 472 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10%

47 of 472 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#35 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 472 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

29% (137)

Fair

61% (288)

Poor

10% (47)

Onondaga County's Poor-condition bridges carry 931,505 vehicle crossings a day

That is 14.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 20,250 crossings a day against 9,803 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 469 of 472 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

54% of Onondaga County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

255 of the 472 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 29% 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 9.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE I690 over LODI STREET, built 1968, carries 91,568 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 47-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 931,505 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

3
1900s

7
1910s

2
1920s

9
1930s

15
1940s

8
1950s

62
1960s

92
1970s

90
1980s

67
1990s

42
2000s

43
2010s

21
2020s

11

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 92 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the New York average (1972).

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

The 5 New York counties nearest Onondaga County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 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 Onondaga County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Oneida County	496	46.2%	42.3%	11.5%	1972
Cattaraugus County	484	55.4%	38.4%	6.2%	1982
Orange County	472	25.4%	59.3%	15.3%	1974
Onondaga County (this page)	472	29%	61%	10%	1974
Broome County	468	39.3%	58.3%	2.4%	1975
Delaware County	450	38.4%	54.7%	6.9%	1977

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (472 bridges here).

Pierce County, WA · 472 bridges
Multnomah County, OR · 473 bridges
Jasper County, MO · 471 bridges
Pecos County, TX · 470 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Lincoln County, OK · avg 1974 · 450 bridges

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

All 472 Good 137 Fair 288 Poor 47

All bridges (472)

Sort:

Onondaga County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Onondaga County's Poor-condition bridges carry 931,505 vehicle crossings a day

54% of Onondaga County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 9.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Onondaga 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 (472)

RTE I81

AIRPORT BLVD

CR54

RTE I481

RTE I481

RTE I81

RTE I690

RTE I690

RTE I481

RTE I481

COUNTY ROAD 109

81I

RTE I690

RTE I690

RTE I690

RTE I90

RTE I81

CR57

RTE I481

RTE I690

RTE I90

RAMP O TO I690E

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