County profile · official public datasets

Erie County, PA

442 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.8% rated Good, 52.7% Fair, 9.5% Poor.

442
Public bridges: 37.8%
Good condition: 9.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 34%
lowest Poor share in state: 9.5%
Poor-condition share: 442
public highway bridges: 1976
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.

Erie County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Erie County ranks #23 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.5%). Erie County, Pennsylvania contains 442 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.8% are rated “Good,” 52.7% “Fair,” and 9.5% “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

442

Public highway bridges in Erie County

Good condition

37.8%

167 of 442 rated 7-9

Fair condition

52.7%

233 of 442 rated 5-6

Poor condition

9.5%

42 of 442 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#23 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 442 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

37.8% (167)

Fair

52.7% (233)

Poor

9.5% (42)

Erie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 65,186 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,630 crossings a day against 4,490 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 440 of 442 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

49.1% of Erie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

217 of the 442 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 37.8% 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 14.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 90 WB over OVER SR 20 E/WB E MAIN, built 1959, carries 9,175 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 42-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 65,186 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

4
1900s

2
1910s

6
1920s

10
1930s

18
1940s

13
1950s

83
1960s

58
1970s

43
1980s

49
1990s

46
2000s

61
2010s

40
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 83 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1976, 6 years newer than the Pennsylvania average of 1970.

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

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Erie County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1976 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Erie County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Luzerne County	457	28.9%	45.5%	25.6%	1972
Somerset County	454	33%	52.6%	14.3%	1969
Dauphin County	449	22%	69.5%	8.5%	1972
Erie County (this page)	442	37.8%	52.7%	9.5%	1976
Mercer County	438	39.3%	45.2%	15.5%	1972
Tioga County	429	49.4%	47.3%	3.3%	1977

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (442 bridges here).

Craighead County, AR · 442 bridges
Loudoun County, VA · 442 bridges
Imperial County, CA · 444 bridges
Licking County, OH · 439 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1976 here).

Marion County, IN · avg 1976 · 958 bridges
Mohave County, AZ · avg 1976 · 641 bridges
Comanche County, OK · avg 1976 · 593 bridges
Prince George's County, MD · avg 1976 · 576 bridges

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

All 442 Good 167 Fair 233 Poor 42

Fair-condition bridges (233)

Sort:

Erie County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Erie County's Poor-condition bridges carry 65,186 vehicle crossings a day

49.1% of Erie County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 14.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Erie 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 (233)

SR 90 EB

SR 90 EB

T-564 TRASK ROAD

SR 79 NB

SR 8 WATTSBURG RD.

SR 4024 ROBINSON R

SR 79 SB

SR 2022 TURNPIKE R

T-424 FALLS ROAD

SR 290 STATION RD

SR 2025 SCIOTA RD

SR 3012 CRSSGVILLE

SR 19 WATERFORD PK

SR 2006 DEPOT ROAD

SR 2019 Elgin Road

SR 3014 OLD ST.RD.

T-980 LAKE VIEW DR

SR 3017 WELLSBURG

SR 90 EB

SR 6 GRAND ARMY HY

SR 8 WATTSBURG RD

SR 90 EB

SR 2008 STONE QURY

SR 90 WB

SR 2003 FLATT ROAD

SR 1001 LK.PLSNT.R

SR 6 GRAND ARMY HY

SR 5 WEST LAKE RD.

SR 90 EB/WB

SR 90 EB/WB

SR 90 EB/WB

T-301 MIDDLE RD

SR 90 EB/WB

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