County profile · official public datasets

Bradford County, PA

399 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.4% rated Good, 46.6% Fair, 10% Poor.

399
Public bridges: 43.4%
Good condition: 10%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 37%
lowest Poor share in state: 10%
Poor-condition share: 399
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Bradford County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bradford County ranks #25 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10%). Bradford County, Pennsylvania contains 399 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.4% are rated “Good,” 46.6% “Fair,” and 10% “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

399

Public highway bridges in Bradford County

Good condition

43.4%

173 of 399 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.6%

186 of 399 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10%

40 of 399 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#25 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 399 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

43.4% (173)

Fair

46.6% (186)

Poor

10% (40)

Bradford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,696 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 242 crossings a day against 1,370 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 399 of 399 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

54.1% of Bradford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

216 of the 399 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 43.4% 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 35.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 0187 over DRY RUN CREEK, built 1957, carries 3,446 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 40-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 9,696 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

5
1900s

10
1910s

12
1920s

28
1930s

14
1940s

27
1950s

45
1960s

43
1970s

60
1980s

25
1990s

38
2000s

26
2010s

51
2020s

15

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 60 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 15% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1971) matches the Pennsylvania average (1970).

How Bradford County compares with Pennsylvania's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Bradford County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1968 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 66 Pennsylvania counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bradford County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bedford County	417	30%	60.9%	9.1%	1965
Crawford County	399	35.6%	46.9%	17.5%	1965
Bradford County (this page)	399	43.4%	46.6%	10%	1971
Delaware County	387	24.5%	63.6%	11.9%	1968
Lehigh County	381	29.4%	59.3%	11.3%	1966
Butler County	378	29.9%	55.8%	14.3%	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 Bradford 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 Bradford County, both outside Pennsylvania so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (399 bridges here).

Wichita County, TX · 399 bridges
Muskogee County, OK · 398 bridges
Sumner County, TN · 398 bridges
San Luis Obispo County, CA · 401 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges
Monmouth County, NJ · avg 1971 · 505 bridges

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

All 399 Good 173 Fair 186 Poor 40

All bridges (399)

Sort:

Bradford County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bradford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,696 vehicle crossings a day

54.1% of Bradford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 35.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bradford County compares with Pennsylvania'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 (399)

SR 3020

PA 414

SR 1056

SR 4016

SULLIVAN ST(BR#10)

T537 TAYLOR SCH RD

US 6

US 6

SR 0187

SR 0220

SR 0220

SR 220

SR 220

SR 0220

SR 0367

SR 0414

SR 0414

SR 414

SR 467

PA 514

PA 514

SR 1021

SR 1029

SR 1043

SR 1056

SR 2012

SR 2017

SR 2027

SR 3018

S.R. 3027

SR 3029

SR 4004

SR 4014

SR 4015

T-524 TWP. BR. #1

T-902 LITCHFIELD

T- 684

T-687 (BR.#1)

T-720 (BR.# 3)

T-532 (CO.BR.#35)

SR 0187

SR 414

SR 2010

SR 4001

SR 4014

SR 3008

SR 4018

SOPERTOWN RD

T-889 (CO. BR.#45)

SR 14

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