County profile · official public datasets

Jefferson County, OR

80 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 46.3% rated Good, 46.3% Fair, 7.5% Poor.

80
Public bridges: 46.3%
Good condition: 7.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

32nd
of 36 on Poor share: 7.5%
Poor-condition share: 80
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Jefferson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jefferson County ranks #32 of 36 Oregon counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.5%). Jefferson County, Oregon contains 80 public highway bridges. Roughly 46.3% are rated “Good,” 46.3% “Fair,” and 7.5% “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 Jefferson County

Good condition

46.3%

37 of 80 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.3%

37 of 80 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.5%

6 of 80 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#32 of 36

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

Condition distribution

Share of 80 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

46.3% (37)

Fair

46.3% (37)

Poor

7.5% (6)

Jefferson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 632 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 105 crossings a day against 1,954 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 80 of 80 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

46.3% of Jefferson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

37 of the 80 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 46.3% 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 41.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

BEAR DR over IRRIGATION CANAL, built 1952, carries 260 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 632 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

1
1940s

9
1950s

8
1960s

10
1970s

11
1980s

5
1990s

6
2000s

23
2010s

5
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1980, 5 years newer than the Oregon average of 1975.

How Jefferson County compares with Oregon's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Oregon counties nearest Jefferson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.5% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 35 Oregon counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Jefferson County and the 5 Oregon counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Curry County	101	31.7%	64.4%	4%	1969
Lake County	94	47.9%	45.7%	6.4%	1981
Hood River County	82	48.8%	48.8%	2.4%	1977
Jefferson County (this page)	80	46.3%	46.3%	7.5%	1980
Crook County	79	46.8%	53.2%	0%	1980
Morrow County	70	45.7%	51.4%	2.9%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside OR (80 bridges here).

Moffat County, CO · 80 bridges
Burke County, GA · 80 bridges
Gooding County, ID · 80 bridges
Madison County, ID · 80 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside OR (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 80 Good 37 Fair 37 Poor 6

All bridges (80)

Sort:

Jefferson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Jefferson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 632 vehicle crossings a day

46.3% of Jefferson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 41.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Jefferson County compares with Oregon'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 (80)

COLEMAN RD

JORDAN RD

FEATHER DRIVE

US 26 (HWY 053)

IRIS LANE

EUREKA LANE

DOGWOOD LANE

OLD HWY 97

MONROE LANE

GUMWOOD LANE

HIGHLAND LANE

SW IRVING LANE

NE 9th Street

JERICHO LANE

7TH ST MADRAS

GREEN DRIVE

US 26 (HWY 053)

NE MEADOWLARK LN

US 26 (HWY 053)

IRR BIA RTE 4

IRR BIA RTE 2

US 97 (HWY 004)SB

ACCESS ROAD

LOCAL ACCESS ROAD

C STREET

McTaggart Road

IRR BIA RTE 1

LOCAL ACCESS ROAD

HWY 361 SB

CHERRY LANE

CAMP SHERMAN ROAD

US 97 (HWY 004)

LOWER METOL ACCESS

PARK LANE

COLEMAN RD

US 97 (Hwy 004)

IRR BIA RTE 25

JORDAN RD

ASHWOOD RD

Ashwood Road

NO DATA ENTERED

TRACT C ROAD

US 97 (HWY 004)

IRR BIA RTE 2

SW BELMONT LANE

Rd 1260000

NO DATA ENTERED

BEAR DR

B STREET

ACCESS ROAD

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