Total bridges
18
Public highway bridges in Ciales County
County profile · official public datasets
Ciales County, PR
18 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 11.1% rated Good, 72.2% Fair, 16.7% Poor.
- 18
- Public bridges
- 11.1%
- Good condition
- 16.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Ciales 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.
- 46th
- of 74 on Poor share
- 16.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 18
- public highway bridges
- 1951
- 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.
Ciales County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ciales County ranks #46 of 74 Puerto Rico counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 16.7%). Ciales County, Puerto Rico contains 18 public highway bridges. Roughly 11.1% are rated “Good,” 72.2% “Fair,” and 16.7% “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.
Good condition
11.1%
2 of 18 rated 7-9
Fair condition
72.2%
13 of 18 rated 5-6
Poor condition
16.7%
3 of 18 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#46 of 74
Among Puerto Rico counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 18 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 11.1% (2)
Fair 72.2% (13)
Poor 16.7% (3)
Ciales County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,700 vehicle crossings a day
That is 24.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 16.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,567 crossings a day against 1,900 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 18 of 18 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
77.8% of Ciales County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
14 of the 18 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 11.1% 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 84.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
PR 145 over GRANDE DE MANATI RIVER, built 1955, carries 9,000 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 10,700 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Ciales County's bridges were built
18 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1920s
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1950s 2
1950–1959
2 bridges
- 1960s 2
1960–1969
2 bridges
- 1970s 2
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s 1
1980–1989
1 bridges
- 2000s 1
2000–2009
1 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1920s, when 7 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 38.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 95 to 104 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1951, 23 years older than the Puerto Rico average of 1974.
How Ciales County compares with Puerto Rico's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Puerto Rico counties nearest Ciales County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 16.7% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1951 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 25 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 73 Puerto Rico counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aguada County | 19 | 15.8% | 73.7% | 10.5% | 1967 |
| Gurabo County | 19 | 21.1% | 78.9% | 0% | 1978 |
| Orocovis County | 19 | 26.3% | 52.6% | 21.1% | 1964 |
| Ciales County (this page) | 18 | 11.1% | 72.2% | 16.7% | 1951 |
| Hormigueros County | 17 | 29.4% | 58.8% | 11.8% | 1990 |
| Toa Alta County | 17 | 41.2% | 47.1% | 11.8% | 1981 |
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 Ciales 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 Ciales County, both outside Puerto Rico so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside PR (18 bridges here).
- Haskell County, KS · 18 bridges
- Charlevoix County, MI · 18 bridges
- Rolette County, ND · 18 bridges
- Briscoe County, TX · 18 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside PR (1951 here).
- Coleman County, TX · avg 1951 · 150 bridges
- Warren County, NJ · avg 1952 · 268 bridges
- Mason County, TX · avg 1952 · 84 bridges
- Roberts County, TX · avg 1952 · 22 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (13)
PR 149
FairOver: SMALL STREAM
7 KM NORTH OF VILLALBA, Ciales, PR
Built 1931 Load: 6.4 t ADT: 700
PR 149
FairOver: CINTRON CREEK
11 KM NORTH OF VILLALBA, Ciales, PR
Built 1927 Load: 8.5 t ADT: 200
PR 6685
FairOver: GRANDE DE MANATI RIVER
3 KM NORTH OF CIALES, Ciales, PR
Built 1905 Load: 8.5 t ADT: 2,000
PR 614
FairOver: CIALITOS RIVER
10 KM SOUTHWEST OF CIALES, Ciales, PR
Built 1963 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 800
PR 149
FairOver: RALAT CREEK
17 KM NORTH OF VILLALBA, Ciales, PR
Built 1926 Load: 11.1 t ADT: 200
PR 149
FairOver: CREEK
16 KM NORTH OF VILLALBA, Ciales, PR
Built 1926 Load: 11.3 t ADT: 200
PR 149
FairOver: DOÑA JUANA CREEK
8 KM NORTH OF VILLALBA, Ciales, PR
Built 1923 Load: 12.0 t ADT: 700
PR 157
FairOver: TORO NEGRO RIVER
9 KM EAST OF JAYUYA, Ciales, PR
Built 1956 Load: 13.5 t ADT: 200
PR 149
FairOver: TORO NEGRO RIVER
6 KM NORTH OF VILLALBA, Ciales, PR
Built 1924 Load: 15.3 t ADT: 700
PR 608
FairOver: CIALITOS RIVER
16.5 KM S W OF CIALES, Ciales, PR
Built 1980 Load: 28.1 t ADT: 100
PR 533
FairOver: AMARGURA CREEK
7 KM NORTH EAST OF JAYUYA, Ciales, PR
Built 1927 Load: 32.1 t ADT: 3,300
PR 146
FairOver: CIALITOS RIVER
0.5 KM NORTH OF CIALES, Ciales, PR
Built 1973 Load: 44.0 t ADT: 4,800
PR 149
FairOver: GRANDE DE MANATI RIVER
1 KM NORTH EAST OF CIALES, Ciales, PR
Built 1975 Load: 50.8 t ADT: 15,800
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
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.