County profile · official public datasets

Centre County, PA

367 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48% rated Good, 46% Fair, 6% Poor.

367
Public bridges: 48%
Good condition: 6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Centre 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 12%
lowest Poor share in state: 6%
Poor-condition share: 367
public highway bridges: 1982
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.

Centre County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Centre County ranks #8 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6%). Centre County, Pennsylvania contains 367 public highway bridges. Roughly 48% are rated “Good,” 46% “Fair,” and 6% “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

367

Public highway bridges in Centre County

Good condition

48%

176 of 367 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46%

169 of 367 rated 5-6

Poor condition

22 of 367 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#8 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 367 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

48% (176)

Fair

46% (169)

Poor

6% (22)

Centre County's Poor-condition bridges carry 43,581 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,981 crossings a day against 5,080 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 367 of 367 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39% of Centre County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

143 of the 367 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 48% 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 30.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 150-PA 150 over LOGAN BRANCH, built 1934, carries 13,482 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 22-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 43,581 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

7
1920s

15
1930s

28
1940s

8
1950s

15
1960s

46
1970s

27
1980s

28
1990s

31
2000s

100
2010s

48
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 100 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1982, 12 years newer than the Pennsylvania average of 1970.

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

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Centre County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is 13 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Centre County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lehigh County	381	29.4%	59.3%	11.3%	1966
Butler County	378	29.9%	55.8%	14.3%	1975
Schuylkill County	368	20.4%	53%	26.6%	1961
Centre County (this page)	367	48%	46%	6%	1982
Lackawanna County	363	36.6%	45.7%	17.6%	1972
Northampton County	356	31.2%	59.6%	9.3%	1970

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (367 bridges here).

Allen County, OH · 367 bridges
Clackamas County, OR · 367 bridges
Sullivan County, TN · 368 bridges
Lorain County, OH · 366 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1982 here).

Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges

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

All 367 Good 176 Fair 169 Poor 22

Fair-condition bridges (169)

Sort:

Centre County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Centre County's Poor-condition bridges carry 43,581 vehicle crossings a day

39% of Centre County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 30.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Centre 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 (169)

SR 26-PA 26

SR 45-PA 45 +RAMPS

SR 45-PA 45

SR 3027

ON TSR 888

T-419 LOW GEORGE V

LAMB STREET

SR 45-PA 45

SR 45-US 322 BUS

SR 64-PA 64

SR 3011

SR 3025

SR 26-PA 26

SR 144-PA 144

SR 150-PA 150

SR 3042

SR 3014-US 322 BUS

SR 3014-US 322 BUS

COMMERCIAL ST

SR 26-PA 26

SR 3049

SR 2004

T-532 RISHEL HILL

SR 3040

SR 2012

SR 150-PA 150

SR 99-I 99

SR 64-PA 64

SR 322-US 322

SR 445-PA 445

SR 2012

ON TSR 959

SR 550-PA 550

SR 26-PA 26

SR 220-US 220

SR 322-US 322

PANTHER RD

SR 322-US 322

SR 3042

SR 322-US 322

SR 8008-I-80 RAMP

SR 322-US 322

SR 3029

T-330 DEIBLER ROAD

SR 45-PA 45

SR 3040

SR 504-PA 504

SR 3011

T-449 BEAVER DAM

SR 99-I 99

Related