County profile · official public datasets

Tompkins County, NY

192 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.5% rated Good, 46.9% Fair, 14.6% Poor.

192
Public bridges: 38.5%
Good condition: 14.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

50th
of 62 on Poor share: 14.6%
Poor-condition share: 192
public highway bridges: 1973
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.

Tompkins County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Tompkins County ranks #50 of 62 New York counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 14.6%). Tompkins County, New York contains 192 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.5% are rated “Good,” 46.9% “Fair,” and 14.6% “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

192

Public highway bridges in Tompkins County

Good condition

38.5%

74 of 192 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.9%

90 of 192 rated 5-6

Poor condition

14.6%

28 of 192 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#50 of 62

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

Condition distribution

Share of 192 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.5% (74)

Fair

46.9% (90)

Poor

14.6% (28)

Tompkins County's Poor-condition bridges carry 57,203 vehicle crossings a day

That is 9.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 14.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,043 crossings a day against 3,810 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 191 of 192 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

47.4% of Tompkins County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

91 of the 192 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 38.5% 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 55.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

RTE 13 over CASCADILLA CREEK, built 1965, carries 31,683 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 28-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 57,203 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

1
1910s

5
1920s

9
1930s

20
1940s

9
1950s

13
1960s

28
1970s

11
1980s

16
1990s

35
2000s

20
2010s

15
2020s

8

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 35 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1973) matches the New York average (1972).

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

The 5 New York counties nearest Tompkins County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 14.6% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1971 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 Tompkins County and the 5 New York counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Montgomery County	205	34.6%	54.1%	11.2%	1965
Clinton County	201	39.3%	48.3%	12.4%	1979
Tompkins County (this page)	192	38.5%	46.9%	14.6%	1973
Cortland County	189	33.3%	49.7%	16.9%	1974
Franklin County	189	47.6%	40.7%	11.6%	1975
Washington County	189	36%	50.3%	13.8%	1960

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NY (192 bridges here).

Barbour County, AL · 192 bridges
El Dorado County, CA · 192 bridges
Santa Cruz County, CA · 192 bridges
Morgan County, CO · 192 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NY (1973 here).

Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
Sacramento County, CA · avg 1973 · 740 bridges

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

All 192 Good 74 Fair 90 Poor 28

Good-condition bridges (74)

Sort:

Tompkins County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Tompkins County's Poor-condition bridges carry 57,203 vehicle crossings a day

47.4% of Tompkins County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 55.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Tompkins 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

Good-condition bridges (74)

MORRELL ROAD

JOHNSON ROAD

CENTRAL CHAPEL RD

EAST LAKE ROAD

RTE 327

MYERS RD

RTE 13

RTE 34

RTE 38

RTE 79

MAIN STREET

GLENWOOD ROAD

HERMAN ROAD

OLD STAGE RD

FALL CREEK ROAD

RTE 96

RTE 222

SOUTH ALBANY ST.

LAKE STREET

NEWFIELD DEPOT RD

GROTON CITY ROAD

GILES STREET

RTE 13

BROOK ROAD

DODGE ROAD

County Road 109

RTE 34

RTE 96

Park Road

LINN STREET

LAKE STREET

CECIL A MALONE DR

South George Road

SENECA ROAD

Cemetary Road

JERSEY HILL ROAD

RINGWOOD ROAD

WEST DRYDEN ROAD

WATERBURG ROAD

HALSEYVILLE ROAD

RTE 79

BUFFALO ROAD

EAST LAKE ROAD

HARFORD ROAD

RTE 89

CENTRAL CHAPEL RD

RTE 96

FALL CREEK ROAD

SALMON CREEK ROAD

RTE 13

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