County profile · official public datasets

Bucks County, PA

699 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 24.3% rated Good, 60.2% Fair, 15.5% Poor.

699
Public bridges: 24.3%
Good condition: 15.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

50th
of 67 on Poor share: 15.5%
Poor-condition share: 699
public highway bridges: 1958
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.

Bucks County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bucks County ranks #50 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 15.5%). Bucks County, Pennsylvania contains 699 public highway bridges. Roughly 24.3% are rated “Good,” 60.2% “Fair,” and 15.5% “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

699

Public highway bridges in Bucks County

Good condition

24.3%

170 of 699 rated 7-9

Fair condition

60.2%

421 of 699 rated 5-6

Poor condition

15.5%

108 of 699 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#50 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 699 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

24.3% (170)

Fair

60.2% (421)

Poor

15.5% (108)

Bucks County's Poor-condition bridges carry 659,825 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 15.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 6,167 crossings a day against 10,821 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 698 of 699 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

68.9% of Bucks County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

480 of the 697 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 24.3% 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 7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

PA TPK (I-276) over T-346 BLOMSDAL RD, built 1954, carries 46,280 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 108-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 659,825 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

55
1900s

18
1910s

22
1920s

37
1930s

67
1940s

15
1950s

89
1960s

99
1970s

101
1980s

57
1990s

22
2000s

35
2010s

57
2020s

23

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 101 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 14.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1958, 12 years older than the Pennsylvania average of 1970.

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

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Bucks County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 15.5% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1958 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bucks County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lancaster County	801	30.6%	58.2%	11.2%	1973
Bucks County (this page)	699	24.3%	60.2%	15.5%	1958
Chester County	680	25%	61.3%	13.7%	1963
Berks County	667	21.4%	63.6%	15%	1962
Washington County	655	38.3%	49.6%	12.1%	1971
Westmoreland County	620	36.5%	47.7%	15.8%	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 Bucks 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 Bucks County, both outside Pennsylvania so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (699 bridges here).

Douglas County, OR · 699 bridges
Ellis County, TX · 691 bridges
Madison County, AL · 710 bridges
Montgomery County, TX · 710 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1958 here).

Middlesex County, MA · avg 1958 · 818 bridges
Butte County, CA · avg 1958 · 437 bridges
Cowley County, KS · avg 1958 · 337 bridges
Marin County, CA · avg 1958 · 207 bridges

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

All 699 Good 170 Fair 421 Poor 108

Fair-condition bridges (421)

Sort:

Bucks County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bucks County's Poor-condition bridges carry 659,825 vehicle crossings a day

68.9% of Bucks County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bucks 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

Fair-condition bridges (421)

CONNECT PA263&NJ29

COVERED BRIDGE RD

SR 2070

MILK HOUSE DRIVE

GAYMAN ROAD

QUARRY ROAD

SCHWENK MILL ROAD

FARM SCHOOL ROAD

BRIDGE STREET

Greensward Road S

BERM LANE

UHLERSTOWN HILL RD

CORN CRIB LANE

POINT PLEASANT PK.

SR 1016

UNION MILL DRIVE

HAYCOCK RUN ROAD

CARVER-WISMER ROAD

RINGING ROCKS ROAD

OLD BETHLEHEM ROAD

KINTNER ROAD

LINCOLN HIGHWAY

LANGHORNE WEST ACC

WASHINGTON CROSSIN

BROWNSVILLE ROAD

LIMEKILN ROAD

UPPER STATE ROAD

FAIRHILL ROAD

INTERSTATE 295 EB

INTERSTATE 295 EB

CARVER-WISMER ROAD

GEIGEL HILL ROAD

BRANCH ROAD

CONNECT PA32&NJ29

INTERSTATE 95 (NB)

INTERSTATE 95 (SB)

KEELEY AVENUE

BYERS ROAD

PA TPK (I-276)

INTERSTATE 295 WB

BIG OAK ROAD

INTERSTATE 295 WB

STREET ROAD

BETHLEHEM PK

CUTTALOSSA ROAD

INTERSTATE 295(EB)

INTERSTATE 295(WB)

INTERSTATE 295 WB

INTERSTATE 295 WB

STREET ROAD

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