County profile · official public datasets

Río Grande County, PR

47 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34% rated Good, 53.2% Fair, 12.8% Poor.

47
Public bridges: 34%
Good condition: 12.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Río Grande County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 42%
lowest Poor share in state: 12.8%
Poor-condition share: 47
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Río Grande County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Río Grande County ranks #31 of 74 Puerto Rico counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.8%). Río Grande County, Puerto Rico contains 47 public highway bridges. Roughly 34% are rated “Good,” 53.2% “Fair,” and 12.8% “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

Public highway bridges in Río Grande County

Good condition

34%

16 of 47 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53.2%

25 of 47 rated 5-6

Poor condition

12.8%

6 of 47 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#31 of 74

Among Puerto Rico counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 47 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

34% (16)

Fair

53.2% (25)

Poor

12.8% (6)

Río Grande County's Poor-condition bridges carry 17,800 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,967 crossings a day against 14,211 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 47 of 47 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

36.2% of Río Grande County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

17 of the 47 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 34% 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 57.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

PR 187 over LA VEGA CREEK, built 1940, carries 10,300 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 17,800 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1920s

1
1930s

3
1940s

6
1950s

4
1960s

1
1970s

8
1980s

2
1990s

5
2000s

1
2010s

15

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1979, 5 years newer than the Puerto Rico average of 1974.

How Río Grande County compares with Puerto Rico's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Puerto Rico counties nearest Río Grande County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.8% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 5 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 73 Puerto Rico counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Río Grande County and the 5 Puerto Rico counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Arecibo County	51	3.9%	78.4%	17.6%	1971
Naguabo County	51	23.5%	66.7%	9.8%	1982
San Lorenzo County	51	15.7%	68.6%	15.7%	1970
Río Grande County (this page)	47	34%	53.2%	12.8%	1979
Mayagüez County	45	20%	68.9%	11.1%	1971
San Germán County	45	26.7%	53.3%	20%	1975

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 Río Grande 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 Río Grande County, both outside Puerto Rico so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside PR (47 bridges here).

Juneau City and County, AK · 47 bridges
Jackson County, CO · 47 bridges
Ben Hill County, GA · 47 bridges
Long County, GA · 47 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside PR (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Jefferson County, KY · avg 1979 · 662 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges

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

All 47 Good 16 Fair 25 Poor 6

Fair-condition bridges (25)

Sort:

Río Grande County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Río Grande County's Poor-condition bridges carry 17,800 vehicle crossings a day

36.2% of Río Grande County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 57.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Río Grande County compares with Puerto Rico'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 (25)

LOCAL ROAD

OFF PR 186 KM 22.6

PR 191

OFF PR 958

PR 187

OFF PR 3

PR-66

PR 186

PR 186

PR 191

PR 958

PR 955

PR 186

PR 966

PR 187

PR-958

PR 3

PR 3

PR 3

PR 966

PR 3

PR 3

PR 3

PR 3

PR 958

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