County profile · official public datasets

Schuylkill County, PA

368 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 20.4% rated Good, 53% Fair, 26.6% Poor.

368
Public bridges
20.4%
Good condition
26.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Schuylkill 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.

66th
of 67 on Poor share
26.6%
Poor-condition share
368
public highway bridges
1961
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.

Schuylkill County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Schuylkill County ranks #66 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 26.6%). Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania contains 368 public highway bridges. Roughly 20.4% are rated “Good,” 53% “Fair,” and 26.6% “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

368

Public highway bridges in Schuylkill County

Good condition

20.4%

75 of 368 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53%

195 of 368 rated 5-6

Poor condition

26.6%

98 of 368 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#66 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 368 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
20.4% (75)
Fair
53% (195)
Poor
26.6% (98)

Schuylkill County's Poor-condition bridges carry 85,897 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 26.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 895 crossings a day against 4,177 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 366 of 368 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

71.7% of Schuylkill County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

264 of the 368 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 20.4% 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 15.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

LR417 PA183 over SCHUYLKILL RIVER, built 1951, carries 13,299 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 98-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 85,897 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Schuylkill County's bridges were built

368 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 82 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1961, 9 years older than the Pennsylvania average of 1970.

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Schuylkill County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 26.6% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1961 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 12 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Schuylkill County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Lehigh County 381 11.3%
Butler County 378 14.3%
Schuylkill County (this page) 368 26.6%
Centre County 367 6%
Lackawanna County 363 17.6%
Northampton County 356 9.3%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (368 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1961 here).

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

All 368 Good 75 Fair 195 Poor 98

All bridges (368)

PA 443(LR53012)

Poor

Over: PINE CREEK

1.1 MI.NE OF ORWIGSBURG, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1929 Load: 39.0 t ADT: 2,692

SR 4012

Poor

Over: DEEP CREEK

SACRAMENTO, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1929 Load: 39.0 t ADT: 681

BRIDGE ROAD T-524

Poor

Over: DEEP CREEK

NE OF HEGINS T-524, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1922 Load: 41.7 t ADT: 150

GOLDEN BEAR DRIVE

Poor

Over: MAHANOY CREEK

W.OF MAH.CITY @ M.A.H.S., Schuylkill, PA

Built 1990 Load: 41.7 t ADT: 2,500

PARK PLACE ROAD

Poor

Over: N. MAHANOY CREEK

PARK PLACE RD N.OF M.C., Schuylkill, PA

Built 1961 Load: 41.7 t ADT: 1,300

T753 WILD TURKEY L

Poor

Over: INDIAN RUN

WILD TURKEY LN.NR.T-753, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1930 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 50

VALLEY ROAD T-377

Poor

Over: DEEP CREEK

T377 IN HEGINS TWP, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1922 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 100

ASH CIRCLE

Poor

Over: LIZARD CREEK

320 FT SOUTH OF S.R.0895, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1930 Load: 43.5 t ADT: 150

DREHERSVILLE RD

Poor

Over: PINE CREEK

DREHERSVLL.RD.IN DEERLAKE, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1925 Load: 47.2 t ADT: 800

HEPLER ROAD

Poor

Over: LITTLE MAHANTANGO CREEK

INTERSECTION W/ VALLEY RD, Schuylkill, PA

Built 2009 Load: 48.1 t ADT: 400

PARK PLACE ROAD

Poor

Over: N. MAHANOY CREEK

PARK PLACE RD N.OF M.C., Schuylkill, PA

Built 1960 Load: 49.0 t ADT: 1,300

RAILROAD ST

Poor

Over: MAHANOY CREEK

RAILROAD ST IN GILBERTON, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1910 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 20

SR 2022(LR 53016)

Poor

Over: LITTLE SCHUYLKILL RIVER

VILLAGE OF HECLA, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1927 Load: 52.6 t ADT: 242

BEAR VALLEY RD.

Poor

Over: WEST BRANCH RAUSCH CREEK

BEAR VLY.RD NR.PORTER TWP, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1973 Load: 55.3 t ADT: 300

THWING STREET

Poor

Over: MILL CREEK

ST.CLAIR THWING ST., Schuylkill, PA

Built 1926 Load: 58.1 t ADT: 500

SR 1013 (LR 53036)

Poor

Over: READING/NORTHERN RR

0.1 MI. S. OF PA 54, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1912 Load: 61.7 t ADT: 1,570

CHURCH ST.

Poor

Over: LOCUST CREEK

NW OF TUSCARORA, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1935 Load: 74.4 t ADT: 150

SR 2015(LR 140)

Poor

Over: SCHUYLKILL RIVER

MT.CARBON BORO LINE, Schuylkill, PA

Built 1925 Load: 89.7 t ADT: 5,429

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges

Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.