County profile · official public datasets

Orleans County, NY

136 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.2% rated Good, 42.6% Fair, 16.2% Poor.

136
Public bridges: 41.2%
Good condition: 16.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Orleans 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.

56th
of 62 on Poor share: 16.2%
Poor-condition share: 136
public highway bridges: 1962
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.

Orleans County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Orleans County ranks #56 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 16.2%). Orleans County, New York contains 136 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.2% are rated “Good,” 42.6% “Fair,” and 16.2% “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

136

Public highway bridges in Orleans County

Good condition

41.2%

56 of 136 rated 7-9

Fair condition

42.6%

58 of 136 rated 5-6

Poor condition

16.2%

22 of 136 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#56 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 136 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41.2% (56)

Fair

42.6% (58)

Poor

16.2% (22)

Orleans County's Poor-condition bridges carry 23,316 vehicle crossings a day

That is 18.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 16.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,060 crossings a day against 772 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 136 of 136 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

58.8% of Orleans County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

80 of the 136 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 41.2% 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 26.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE 31 over JEDDO CREEK, built 1946, carries 6,277 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 23,316 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

5
1910s

22
1920s

5
1930s

16
1940s

5
1950s

6
1960s

4
1970s

18
1980s

16
1990s

18
2000s

7
2010s

11
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1910s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 105 to 114 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1962, 10 years older than the New York average of 1972.

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

The 5 New York counties nearest Orleans County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 16.2% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1962 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Orleans County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Genesee County	162	28.4%	58%	13.6%	1970
Cayuga County	148	36.5%	46.6%	16.9%	1971
Warren County	141	39%	51.1%	9.9%	1970
Wyoming County	136	38.2%	52.9%	8.8%	1977
Orleans County (this page)	136	41.2%	42.6%	16.2%	1962
Schenectady County	115	32.2%	60%	7.8%	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 Orleans 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 Orleans County, both outside New York so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (136 bridges here).

Bullock County, AL · 136 bridges
Jackson County, AR · 136 bridges
Perry County, IL · 136 bridges
Lincoln County, KY · 136 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1962 here).

Berks County, PA · avg 1962 · 667 bridges
Pecos County, TX · avg 1962 · 470 bridges
Bristol County, MA · avg 1962 · 384 bridges
Norfolk County, MA · avg 1962 · 343 bridges

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

All 136 Good 56 Fair 58 Poor 22

All bridges (136)

Sort:

Orleans County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Orleans County's Poor-condition bridges carry 23,316 vehicle crossings a day

58.8% of Orleans County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 26.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Orleans 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 (136)

RTE 63

PRESBYTERIAN ROAD

COUNTY ROAD 11

EAST KENT ROAD

NORWAY ROAD

KNOWLESVILLE ROAD

EAGLE HARBOR ROAD

HULBERTON ROAD

MARSHALL ROAD

CR 11

KEITEL ROAD

GILLETTE ROAD

NORWAY ROAD

FORD STREET

SOUTH HOLLEY ROAD

RTE 272

RTE 18

RTE 18

RTE 387

RTE 31

RTE 31

RTE 237

RTE 237

LAKESIDE ROAD

NORWAY ROAD

MORRISON ROAD

MILL ROAD

LAKESHORE ROAD

RTE 947A

RTE 947A

LAKE SHORE ROAD

RTE 31

KENT ROAD

BATES ROAD

LAKE SHORE ROAD

RTE 63

RTE 98

RTE 18

RTE 947A

EAST KENT ROAD

RTE 31A

RTE 947A

KENT ROAD

CR 42

RTE 279

RTE 947A

RTE 947A

RTE 947A

RTE 947A

BATES ROAD

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