Total bridges
152
Public highway bridges in Deschutes County
County profile · official public datasets
Deschutes County, OR
152 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56.6% rated Good, 42.1% Fair, 1.3% Poor.
- 152
- Public bridges
- 56.6%
- Good condition
- 1.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Deschutes County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 14%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 152
- public highway bridges
- 1986
- 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.
Deschutes County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Deschutes County ranks #5 of 36 Oregon counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.3%). Deschutes County, Oregon contains 152 public highway bridges. Roughly 56.6% are rated “Good,” 42.1% “Fair,” and 1.3% “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.
Good condition
56.6%
86 of 152 rated 7-9
Fair condition
42.1%
64 of 152 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.3%
2 of 152 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#5 of 36
Among Oregon counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 152 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 56.6% (86)
Fair 42.1% (64)
Poor 1.3% (2)
Deschutes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 20 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 10 crossings a day against 8,716 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 152 of 152 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
28.9% of Deschutes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
44 of the 152 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 56.6% 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 65% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
COYOTE RD NG/BBRG1 over NORTH UNIT CANAL, built 1960, carries 13 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 20 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Deschutes County's bridges were built
152 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s 4
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
21 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
30 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
24 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
26 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
28 bridges
- 2010s 11
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 4
2020–2029
4 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 30 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1986, 11 years newer than the Oregon average of 1975.
How Deschutes County compares with Oregon's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Oregon counties nearest Deschutes County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.3% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1986 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 11 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 35 Oregon counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polk County | 161 | 29.2% | 64% | 6.8% | 1976 |
| Clatsop County | 155 | 32.9% | 63.2% | 3.9% | 1974 |
| Deschutes County (this page) | 152 | 56.6% | 42.1% | 1.3% | 1986 |
| Yamhill County | 149 | 24.2% | 71.1% | 4.7% | 1975 |
| Wasco County | 148 | 31.8% | 60.1% | 8.1% | 1968 |
| Grant County | 144 | 45.1% | 49.3% | 5.6% | 1980 |
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 Deschutes 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 Deschutes County, both outside Oregon so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside OR (152 bridges here).
- Logan County, AR · 152 bridges
- Kosciusko County, IN · 152 bridges
- Muhlenberg County, KY · 152 bridges
- Clinton County, MO · 152 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside OR (1986 here).
- El Paso County, TX · avg 1986 · 783 bridges
- Caddo County, LA · avg 1986 · 682 bridges
- Weld County, CO · avg 1986 · 614 bridges
- Polk County, IA · avg 1986 · 545 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.