County profile · official public datasets

Union County, PA

163 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.9% rated Good, 44.8% Fair, 4.3% Poor.

163
Public bridges: 50.9%
Good condition: 4.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Union County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 6%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.3%
Poor-condition share: 163
public highway bridges: 1969
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.

Union County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Union County ranks #4 of 67 Pennsylvania counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.3%). Union County, Pennsylvania contains 163 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.9% are rated “Good,” 44.8% “Fair,” and 4.3% “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

163

Public highway bridges in Union County

Good condition

50.9%

83 of 163 rated 7-9

Fair condition

44.8%

73 of 163 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.3%

7 of 163 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#4 of 67

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

Condition distribution

Share of 163 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

50.9% (83)

Fair

44.8% (73)

Poor

4.3% (7)

Union County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,153 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 308 crossings a day against 2,864 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 163 of 163 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

58.9% of Union County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

96 of the 163 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 50.9% 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 58.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 3012 over OVER SWEITZERS RUN, built 1948, carries 1,269 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 7-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,153 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

2
1900s

7
1910s

3
1920s

2
1930s

24
1940s

10
1950s

10
1960s

20
1970s

24
1980s

10
1990s

10
2000s

11
2010s

25
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 25 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 15.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1969) matches the Pennsylvania average (1970).

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

The 5 Pennsylvania counties nearest Union County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.3% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1969 against a peer-group mean of 1969 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Union County and the 5 Pennsylvania counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Clarion County	172	27.9%	64%	8.1%	1974
Juniata County	169	30.2%	56.2%	13.6%	1969
Union County (this page)	163	50.9%	44.8%	4.3%	1969
Snyder County	161	47.2%	47.2%	5.6%	1966
Fulton County	159	32.1%	56%	11.9%	1967
Pike County	158	35.4%	38.6%	25.9%	1971

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PA (163 bridges here).

Mercer County, IL · 163 bridges
Jennings County, IN · 163 bridges
Wayne County, IA · 163 bridges
Jackson County, LA · 163 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PA (1969 here).

Cook County, IL · avg 1969 · 1,721 bridges
Fresno County, CA · avg 1969 · 916 bridges
Cuyahoga County, OH · avg 1969 · 871 bridges
Ventura County, CA · avg 1969 · 501 bridges

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

All 163 Good 83 Fair 73 Poor 7

Good-condition bridges (83)

Sort:

Union County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Union County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,153 vehicle crossings a day

58.9% of Union County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 58.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Union 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

Good-condition bridges (83)

N. 10th Street

N. 11th Street

(SR-104)

T-396

I-80 EB

SR 1008

SR 3003

I-80 EB

I-80 WB

SR 1001

SR 15 NBL & SBL

PA 45 (MARKET ST)

SR 2009

SR 3004

T-498 CTY BR 5

SAINT GEORGE ST

SR 2004

S.R. 2009

BEAR RUN ROAD

PA 235

PA 235

T-309 HARTLEY TWP

SR 3009

SR 3003

T-404

I-80 WB

SR 1003

T-394

SR 2001

TWP-

T-321 (CTY BR 12)

SR 3005

SR 1012

SR 192

T-383 CTY BR 19

T-359 TAYLOR BRDG

T-450 (Cty Br. 8)

Spruce Run Rd

STONY RUN RD

SR 1011

Laurel Road

SR 1006

RAMP R-1 over Ramp

SR 3004

COOPER MILL ROAD

T-374 (CTY BR 21)

SR 3004

WEIKERT RUN ROAD

PINE CRK HOLLOW RD

WHITE DEER CRK RD

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