County profile · official public datasets

Queens County, NY

514 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 30.4% rated Good, 62.3% Fair, 7.4% Poor.

514
Public bridges: 30.4%
Good condition: 7.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Queens County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 26%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.4%
Poor-condition share: 514
public highway bridges: 1966
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.

Queens County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Queens County ranks #16 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.4%). Queens County, New York contains 514 public highway bridges. Roughly 30.4% are rated “Good,” 62.3% “Fair,” and 7.4% “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

514

Public highway bridges in Queens County

Good condition

30.4%

156 of 514 rated 7-9

Fair condition

62.3%

320 of 514 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.4%

38 of 514 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#16 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 514 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

30.4% (156)

Fair

62.3% (320)

Poor

7.4% (38)

Queens County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,715,478 vehicle crossings a day

That is 10.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 47,652 crossings a day against 38,182 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 434 of 514 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

70.8% of Queens County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

364 of the 514 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 30.4% 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 10.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE I678 over FLUSHING BAY PROMENADE, built 1963, carries 183,587 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 38-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,715,478 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

8
1910s

28
1920s

8
1930s

60
1940s

40
1950s

57
1960s

139
1970s

22
1980s

33
1990s

19
2000s

46
2010s

25
2020s

27

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 139 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1966, 6 years older than the New York average of 1972.

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

The 5 New York counties nearest Queens County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1966 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 10 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Queens County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Chautauqua County	559	44%	46.3%	9.7%	1977
Queens County (this page)	514	30.4%	62.3%	7.4%	1966
Oneida County	496	46.2%	42.3%	11.5%	1972
Cattaraugus County	484	55.4%	38.4%	6.2%	1982
Onondaga County	472	29%	61%	10%	1974
Orange County	472	25.4%	59.3%	15.3%	1974

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (514 bridges here).

Montgomery County, MD · 515 bridges
Grayson County, TX · 513 bridges
Douglas County, NE · 509 bridges
Williamson County, TN · 520 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1966 here).

Butler County, KS · avg 1966 · 591 bridges
Grafton County, NH · avg 1966 · 544 bridges
Lehigh County, PA · avg 1966 · 381 bridges
Osage County, OK · avg 1966 · 366 bridges

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

All 514 Good 156 Fair 320 Poor 38

Fair-condition bridges (320)

Sort:

Queens County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Queens County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,715,478 vehicle crossings a day

70.8% of Queens County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 10.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Queens 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

Fair-condition bridges (320)

FOREST PARK DRIVE

WOODSIDE AVENUE

FOREST PARK DRIVE

FRANCIS LEWIS BLVD

130TH AVENUE

FRANCIS LEWIS BVD

MERRICK BOULEVARD

RTE 25B

BROADWAY/37TH AVE

RTE I278

WOODSIDE AVENUE

44TH AVENUE

RTE I295

BLDG 59 DEPT RAMP

FRNCIS LEWIS BLVD

RTE 909

RTE 25

41ST AVENUE

147TH STREET

N CONDUIT AVE WB

FRANCIS LEWIS BVD

14TH AVENUE

RTE 25

RTE 25

RTE 25

130TH AVENUE

N CONDUIT AVE WB

UTOPIA PKWY

CLINTONVILLE ST

BEACH CHAN DR WB

130TH STREET

80TH ROAD

82ND AVENUE

RTE 25

METROPOLITAN AVE

MARKWOOD PLACE

FRANCIS LEWIS BVD

LINDEN BOULEVARD

RTE 25

RTE 907M

WEST ALLEY ROAD

RTE 908B

AT 49TH AVENUE

CYPRESS HILLS ST

FOREST PARK DRIVE

225TH ST

SPRINGFIELD BLVD

RTE 25

RTE 901

RTE 908B

Related