County profile · official public datasets

Columbia County, PA

271 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.8% rated Good, 47.2% Fair, 10% Poor.

271
Public bridges: 42.8%
Good condition: 10%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 36%
lowest Poor share in state: 10%
Poor-condition share: 271
public highway bridges: 1965
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.

Columbia County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Columbia County ranks #24 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10%). Columbia County, Pennsylvania contains 271 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.8% are rated “Good,” 47.2% “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

271

Public highway bridges in Columbia County

Good condition

42.8%

116 of 271 rated 7-9

Fair condition

47.2%

128 of 271 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10%

27 of 271 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#24 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 271 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

42.8% (116)

Fair

47.2% (128)

Poor

10% (27)

Columbia County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,197 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% 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 230 crossings a day against 3,224 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 270 of 271 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

64.2% of Columbia County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

174 of the 271 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 42.8% 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 26.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 1022 over OLD CHANNEL TO FISH CRK, built 1947, carries 1,650 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 27-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 6,197 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

10
1900s

8
1910s

7
1920s

11
1930s

27
1940s

17
1950s

29
1960s

44
1970s

24
1980s

23
1990s

12
2000s

27
2010s

28
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 44 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 5 years older than the Pennsylvania average of 1970.

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

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Columbia County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 8 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Columbia County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Cambria County	284	35.9%	56.7%	7.4%	1975
Susquehanna County	284	36.3%	44.7%	19%	1969
Columbia County (this page)	271	42.8%	47.2%	10%	1965
Lawrence County	265	47.5%	41.1%	11.3%	1978
Armstrong County	263	33.5%	58.6%	8%	1976
Wayne County	259	27%	41.7%	31.3%	1967

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (271 bridges here).

Morgan County, AL · 271 bridges
Yolo County, CA · 271 bridges
Yazoo County, MS · 271 bridges
Hall County, NE · 271 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1965 here).

Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges
Caledonia County, VT · avg 1965 · 247 bridges
Macoupin County, IL · avg 1965 · 242 bridges

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

All 271 Good 116 Fair 128 Poor 27

Poor-condition bridges (27)

Sort:

Columbia County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Columbia County's Poor-condition bridges carry 6,197 vehicle crossings a day

64.2% of Columbia County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 26.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Columbia 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

Poor-condition bridges (27)

T-557 CTY BR # 79

T-373 CTY BR. 11

T-316 CTY BR 31

T-583 CTY BR #115

SR 4036

T-317 CNTY BR#29

T-628 COUNTY BR#51

T-312 CTY BR #157

T-367 CTY BR # 48

T-621 CTY BR # 85

CTY BR#133

T-574 CTY BR#126

T471 BRIAR CR.BR#3

T-721 CTY BR#148

SR 1022

SR 0254

SR 4032

T-826 BENTON BR #1

T-574 CTY BR#127

T-455 (GRN BR # 4)

T-682 CTY BR#141

T-409 MIFFLIN BR#2

T-356 CTY BR #57

SR 1020

T-720 BENTON BR 3

T-456 BRIDGE #6

T-580 GREENWD BR#1

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