County profile · official public datasets

Erie County, OH

225 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 66.7% rated Good, 32.9% Fair, 0.4% Poor.

225
Public bridges: 66.7%
Good condition: 0.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Erie County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 7%
lowest Poor share in state: 0.4%
Poor-condition share: 225
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.

Erie County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Erie County ranks #6 of 88 Ohio counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0.4%). Erie County, Ohio contains 225 public highway bridges. Roughly 66.7% are rated “Good,” 32.9% “Fair,” and 0.4% “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

225

Public highway bridges in Erie County

Good condition

66.7%

150 of 225 rated 7-9

Fair condition

32.9%

74 of 225 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0.4%

1 of 225 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#6 of 88

Among Ohio counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 225 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

66.7% (150)

Fair

32.9% (74)

Poor

0.4% (1)

Erie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,682 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 0.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,682 crossings a day against 6,520 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 225 of 225 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

54.7% of Erie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

123 of the 225 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 66.7% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

VERMILION ROAD over NSRR RAILROAD, built 1975, carries 2,682 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,682 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

1
1920s

1
1930s

1
1940s

4
1950s

36
1960s

51
1970s

34
1980s

25
1990s

22
2000s

30
2010s

15
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 51 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Ohio average (1977).

How Erie County compares with Ohio's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Ohio counties nearest Erie County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0.4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 5 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 87 Ohio counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Erie County and the 5 Ohio counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Marion County	229	63.8%	34.1%	2.2%	1975
Jefferson County	226	44.2%	47.3%	8.4%	1966
Erie County (this page)	225	66.7%	32.9%	0.4%	1977
Pickaway County	224	62.9%	34.8%	2.2%	1964
Brown County	223	62.8%	34.1%	3.1%	1974
Crawford County	221	74.2%	23.1%	2.7%	1981

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 Erie 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 Erie County, both outside Ohio so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OH (225 bridges here).

Dallas County, AL · 225 bridges
Madison County, IA · 225 bridges
Mahaska County, IA · 225 bridges
Lincoln County, KS · 225 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OH (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 225 Good 150 Fair 74 Poor 1

All bridges (225)

Sort:

Erie County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Erie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,682 vehicle crossings a day

54.7% of Erie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Erie County compares with Ohio'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 (225)

SR 2

SR 2

SR 2

SR 2

SR 2

SR 2

SR 2

USR 6

USR 6

USR 6

USR 6

USR 6

USR 6

SR 60

SR 61

SR 113

USR 250

USR 250

T-135 HAHN ROAD

SR 2

SR 2

SR 2

SR 2

I80 OH TPK

MILLER RD TR26

REIGER RD TR89

I80 OH TPK

STRUB RD TR07

BARDSHAR RD CR105

I80 TPK

RIVER RD TR-126

MAPLE AVE TR103

FLOR-WAKMN RD CR61

BARDSHAR RD CR105

SR 101

PATTEN TRACT RD

SR 2

SMITH RD TR97

PERKINS AVE

STRECKER RD CR15

USR 6

BILLINGS RD TR-38

ANDRESS RD TR136

HUFF RD TR84

DEAN RD

PORTLAND RD TR32

GARFIELD RD TR18

OLD RAILROAD RD

CR 132 BERLIN RD

SCHENK RD TR111

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