Total bridges
16
Public highway bridges in Lares County
County profile · official public datasets
Lares County, PR
16 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 12.5% rated Good, 81.3% Fair, 6.3% Poor.
- 16
- Public bridges
- 12.5%
- Good condition
- 6.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lares County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 15%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 6.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 16
- public highway bridges
- 1968
- 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.
Lares County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lares County ranks #11 of 74 Puerto Rico counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.3%). Lares County, Puerto Rico contains 16 public highway bridges. Roughly 12.5% are rated “Good,” 81.3% “Fair,” and 6.3% “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.
Good condition
12.5%
2 of 16 rated 7-9
Fair condition
81.3%
13 of 16 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.3%
1 of 16 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#11 of 74
Among Puerto Rico counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 16 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 12.5% (2)
Fair 81.3% (13)
Poor 6.3% (1)
Lares County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,200 vehicle crossings a day
That is 5.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 4,200 crossings a day against 650 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 16 of 16 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
50% of Lares County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
8 of the 16 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 12.5% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
PR 128 over ANON CREEK, built 1922, carries 4,200 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 4,200 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lares County's bridges were built
16 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
3 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
5 bridges
- 1980s 1
1980–1989
1 bridges
- 1990s 1
1990–1999
1 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 5 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1968, 6 years older than the Puerto Rico average of 1974.
How Lares County compares with Puerto Rico's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Puerto Rico counties nearest Lares County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1968 against a peer-group mean of 1981 is 13 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 73 Puerto Rico counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hormigueros County | 17 | 29.4% | 58.8% | 11.8% | 1990 |
| Toa Alta County | 17 | 41.2% | 47.1% | 11.8% | 1981 |
| Cataño County | 16 | 6.3% | 81.3% | 12.5% | 1970 |
| Comerío County | 16 | 25% | 75% | 0% | 1980 |
| Vega Alta County | 16 | 12.5% | 68.8% | 18.8% | 1984 |
| Lares County (this page) | 16 | 12.5% | 81.3% | 6.3% | 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 Lares 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 Lares County, both outside Puerto Rico so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside PR (16 bridges here).
- Aleutians East County, AK · 16 bridges
- North Slope County, AK · 16 bridges
- Alamosa County, CO · 16 bridges
- Grant County, KS · 16 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside PR (1968 here).
- Montgomery County, PA · avg 1968 · 828 bridges
- San Joaquin County, CA · avg 1968 · 644 bridges
- Providence County, RI · avg 1968 · 476 bridges
- Imperial County, CA · avg 1968 · 444 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 111R
FairOver: ANON CREEK
AT SOUTH OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1971 Load: 15.1 t ADT: 5,300
PR 129
FairOver: PR 111
1 KM NORTH EAST OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1977 Load: 16.6 t ADT: 23,400
PR 111
FairOver: GUAJATACA RIVER
1 KM EAST OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1966 Load: 18.4 t ADT: 18,400
PR 111
FairOver: CAMUY RIVER
5.4 KM EAST OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1927 Load: 27.2 t ADT: 2,400
PR 128
FairOver: DE LOS PLATANOS CREEK
1 KM SOUTH OF INT PR 129, Lares, PR
Built 1941 Load: 30.2 t ADT: 700
Off PR-135 km 0.05
FairOver: Guayo River
PR-135 AT km 63.8, Lares, PR
Built 1995 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 200
OFF PR 135 AT 0.12
FairOver: Guayo River
13 KM AT SE Lares Town, Lares, PR
Built 1975 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 3,500
PR 124
FairOver: GRANDE DE ANASCO RIVER
8 KM SOUTH WEST OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1980 Load: 34.9 t ADT: 750
SEC CATANO
FairOver: RIO GUAYO
BACK HOSPITAL GENERAL, Lares, PR
Built 2017 Load: 37.8 t ADT: 100
PR 111R
FairOver: GUAJATACA RIVER
500 MTS EAST OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1978 Load: 38.5 t ADT: 8,500
PR 128
FairOver: BLANCO RIVER
7 KM SOUTH OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1920 Load: 50.9 t ADT: 700
PR 111R
FairOver: PR 111
1 KM WEST OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1966 Load: 53.1 t ADT: 2,384
PR 431
FairOver: PRIETO RIVER
10 KM SOUTH WEST OF LARES, Lares, PR
Built 1978 Load: 61.8 t ADT: 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.