County profile · official public datasets

Jefferson County, PA

202 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 29.2% rated Good, 63.9% Fair, 6.9% Poor.

202
Public bridges: 29.2%
Good condition: 6.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Jefferson County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 16%
lowest Poor share in state: 6.9%
Poor-condition share: 202
public highway bridges: 1972
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.

Jefferson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jefferson County ranks #11 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.9%). Jefferson County, Pennsylvania contains 202 public highway bridges. Roughly 29.2% are rated “Good,” 63.9% “Fair,” and 6.9% “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

202

Public highway bridges in Jefferson County

Good condition

29.2%

59 of 202 rated 7-9

Fair condition

63.9%

129 of 202 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.9%

14 of 202 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#11 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 202 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

29.2% (59)

Fair

63.9% (129)

Poor

6.9% (14)

Jefferson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,154 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,089 crossings a day against 990 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 201 of 202 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

57.9% of Jefferson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

117 of the 202 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 29.2% 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 86.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR0080 EB over NORTH FORK & WAT PLNT RD, built 1962, carries 12,280 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 14,154 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

4
1910s

5
1920s

6
1930s

23
1940s

7
1950s

8
1960s

50
1970s

15
1980s

17
1990s

19
2000s

13
2010s

31
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 50 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1972) matches the Pennsylvania average (1970).

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

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Jefferson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Jefferson County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Warren County	217	36.4%	45.2%	18.4%	1974
Clinton County	212	42.9%	54.7%	2.4%	1978
Potter County	207	44.9%	42%	13%	1979
Jefferson County (this page)	202	29.2%	63.9%	6.9%	1972
Mifflin County	196	41.8%	45.4%	12.8%	1974
Venango County	189	35.4%	49.7%	14.8%	1968

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (202 bridges here).

Elmore County, AL · 202 bridges
Clark County, AR · 202 bridges
St. Francis County, AR · 202 bridges
Floyd County, GA · 202 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1972 here).

Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
Middlesex County, NJ · avg 1972 · 563 bridges

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

All 202 Good 59 Fair 129 Poor 14

Fair-condition bridges (129)

Sort:

Jefferson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Jefferson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14,154 vehicle crossings a day

57.9% of Jefferson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 86.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Jefferson 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 (129)

SR3007

SR0080 WB

SR1012 (T-520)

SR0410

SR 0310

SR0080 WB

SR0080 EB

SR 0310

SR0436

SR0322

SR0830

SR0830

SR1019

SR0036

SR0080 EB

SR0080 WB

SR2010

SR4001

SR4004

SR0080 WB

SR2025

SR3031

T-602 PANCOAST RD

SR 3033 2ND ST.

SR0322

T-375 GRESOCK RD

SR0036

SR0310

SR3004

SR3011

SR0322

SR0322

SR0322

SR3014

SR1830

SR 0119

SR 3007

SR1830

SR2009

SR3011

T-718 PINE RUN CH

SR1006

SR0219

SR0322

SR0036

SR3015

SR3007

SR3039

SR0080 EB

SR0080 EB

Related