County profile · official public datasets

Seneca County, NY

60 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.7% rated Good, 43.3% Fair, 25% Poor.

Compiled by PlainBridges

60
Public bridges: 31.7%
Good condition: 25%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Seneca 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.

62nd
of 62 on Poor share: 25%
Poor-condition share: 60
public highway bridges: 1964
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.

Seneca County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Seneca County ranks #62 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 25%). Seneca County, New York contains 60 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.7% are rated “Good,” 43.3% “Fair,” and 25% “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

Public highway bridges in Seneca County

Good condition

31.7%

19 of 60 rated 7-9

Fair condition

43.3%

26 of 60 rated 5-6

Poor condition

25%

15 of 60 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#62 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 60 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

31.7% (19)

Fair

43.3% (26)

Poor

25% (15)

Seneca County's Poor-condition bridges carry 19,554 vehicle crossings a day

That is 9.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 25% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,304 crossings a day against 3,078 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 60 of 60 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

65% of Seneca County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

39 of the 60 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 31.7% 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 63.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE 5 over CAY & SEN CANAL, built 1932, carries 12,332 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 19,554 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

5
1920s

2
1930s

4
1940s

5
1950s

15
1960s

7
1970s

1
1980s

5
1990s

9
2000s

3
2010s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 25% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1964, 8 years older than the New York average of 1972.

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

The 5 New York counties nearest Seneca County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 25% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1964 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 10 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Seneca County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
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
Hamilton County	88	34.1%	51.1%	14.8%	1970
Seneca County (this page)	60	31.7%	43.3%	25%	1964
Yates County	55	58.2%	40%	1.8%	1985

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (60 bridges here).

Hamilton County, FL · 60 bridges
Hernando County, FL · 60 bridges
Madison County, FL · 60 bridges
Heard County, GA · 60 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1964 here).

Bergen County, NJ · avg 1964 · 577 bridges
Morris County, NJ · avg 1964 · 508 bridges
Baltimore city County, MD · avg 1964 · 374 bridges
Ross County, OH · avg 1964 · 356 bridges

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

All 60 Good 19 Fair 26 Poor 15

All bridges (60)

Sort:

Seneca County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Seneca County's Poor-condition bridges carry 19,554 vehicle crossings a day

65% of Seneca County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 63.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Seneca 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 (60)

RTE 414

BRIDGE STREET

RTE 89

COUNTY ROAD 136A

ARDEN RD

EXIT 41 RAMP

WYERS POINT ROAD

UPPER LAKE ROAD

RTE 96

RTE I90

RTE I90

ALLEN ROAD

MID. BLACK BRK RD

RTE 318

LOWER LAKE RD

COUNTY ROAD 125

STONE CHURCH RD

WHISKEY HILL RD

VETERANS BRIDGE ST

YELLOW TAVERN RD

COUNTY ROAD 119

RTE I90

RTE 89

RTE 96A

RTE 96

RTE 89

EAST LAKE ROAD

CR 101

RTE I90

INTERLAKEN ROAD

DAWSON CORNERS RD

MAYS POINT RD

RTE 96

GRANGE HALL RD

RTE 96

RIVER ROAD CONN.

UPPER LAKE ROAD

RTE 414

RTE 414

CR 101

BIRDSEY RD

NINE FOOT RD

BLACK BROOK RD

RTE 414

RTE 31

DEAN ROAD

POTTER MORGAN ROAD

GORHAM STREET

LOCUST STREET

FRONTENAC ROAD

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