County profile · official public datasets

Schenectady County, NY

115 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32.2% rated Good, 60% Fair, 7.8% Poor.

115
Public bridges: 32.2%
Good condition: 7.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 35%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.8%
Poor-condition share: 115
public highway bridges: 1977
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.

Schenectady County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Schenectady County ranks #22 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.8%). Schenectady County, New York contains 115 public highway bridges. Roughly 32.2% are rated “Good,” 60% “Fair,” and 7.8% “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

115

Public highway bridges in Schenectady County

Good condition

32.2%

37 of 115 rated 7-9

Fair condition

60%

69 of 115 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.8%

9 of 115 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#22 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 115 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

32.2% (37)

Fair

60% (69)

Poor

7.8% (9)

Schenectady County's Poor-condition bridges carry 90,755 vehicle crossings a day

That is 9.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 10,084 crossings a day against 6,519 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 114 of 115 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

40% of Schenectady County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

46 of the 115 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 32.2% 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 25.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE I890 over EDISON WYE ERIE/890 Was, built 1966, carries 23,418 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 90,755 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

1
1930s

3
1940s

3
1950s

12
1960s

14
1970s

14
1980s

28
1990s

23
2000s

6
2010s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1977, 5 years newer than the New York average of 1972.

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

The 5 New York counties nearest Schenectady County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.8% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1968 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Schenectady County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Orleans County	136	41.2%	42.6%	16.2%	1962
Schenectady County (this page)	115	32.2%	60%	7.8%	1977
Putnam County	104	15.4%	73.1%	11.5%	1964
Schuyler County	100	40%	55%	5%	1983
Fulton County	98	34.7%	50%	15.3%	1958
Wayne County	97	48.5%	41.2%	10.3%	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 Schenectady 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 Schenectady County, both outside New York so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (115 bridges here).

Alachua County, FL · 115 bridges
Walton County, GA · 115 bridges
Latah County, ID · 115 bridges
Whitley County, IN · 115 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1977 here).

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 115 Good 37 Fair 69 Poor 9

All bridges (115)

Sort:

Schenectady County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Schenectady County's Poor-condition bridges carry 90,755 vehicle crossings a day

40% of Schenectady County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 25.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Schenectady 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 (115)

RTE I90

RTE 20

BOZENKILL ROAD

DEPOT ROAD

OAK STREET

ALTAMONT AVENUE

RTE 7

RTE 90

RTE 146

RTE 911F

RTE 158

RTE I88

ON-RAMP TO I-890

RTE 915

RTE I890

RTE I890

RTE 5

CRAIG STREET

MUSELBECK ROAD

RTE I890

RTE I890

RTE I890

OFF-RAMP FROM I-89

RTE I88

CR 158

RTE 103

RTE I88

CONGRESS STREET

RTE I90

RTE I88

OLD ROUTE 30

DUNNSVILLE ROAD

CHADWICK ROAD

RTE 7 CONNECTOR

RTE 890

BRAMAN CORNERS RD

RTE 5

RTE 7

HIGH BRIDGE ROAD

RTE I890

RTE I88

RTE 890

RTE 5

RTE 50

SCHOHARIE TURNPIKE

RTE 395

RTE 158

RTE 5S

RTE I88

RTE I88

Related