Total bridges
40
Public highway bridges in Salinas County
County profile · official public datasets
Salinas County, PR
40 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 2.5% rated Good, 77.5% Fair, 20% Poor.
- 40
- Public bridges
- 2.5%
- Good condition
- 20%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Salinas County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 56th
- of 74 on Poor share
- 20%
- Poor-condition share
- 40
- public highway bridges
- 1976
- 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.
Salinas County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Salinas County ranks #56 of 74 Puerto Rico counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 20%). Salinas County, Puerto Rico contains 40 public highway bridges. Roughly 2.5% are rated “Good,” 77.5% “Fair,” and 20% “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
2.5%
1 of 40 rated 7-9
Fair condition
77.5%
31 of 40 rated 5-6
Poor condition
20%
8 of 40 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#56 of 74
Among Puerto Rico counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 40 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 2.5% (1)
Fair 77.5% (31)
Poor 20% (8)
Salinas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 131,350 vehicle crossings a day
That is 18.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 20% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 16,419 crossings a day against 20,300 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 40 of 40 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
70% of Salinas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
28 of the 40 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 2.5% 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 26.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
PR 52 SOUTHBOUND over MAJADAS RIVER & PR 7, built 1972, carries 34,900 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 131,350 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Salinas County's bridges were built
40 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
24 bridges
- 1980s 3
1980–1989
3 bridges
- 1990s 5
1990–1999
5 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s 1
2010–2019
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 24 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 60% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1976) matches the Puerto Rico average (1974).
How Salinas County compares with Puerto Rico's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Puerto Rico counties nearest Salinas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 20% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1976 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 73 Puerto Rico counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mayagüez County | 45 | 20% | 68.9% | 11.1% | 1971 |
| San Germán County | 45 | 26.7% | 53.3% | 20% | 1975 |
| Yabucoa County | 41 | 22% | 56.1% | 22% | 1966 |
| Yauco County | 40 | 20% | 65% | 15% | 1986 |
| Salinas County (this page) | 40 | 2.5% | 77.5% | 20% | 1976 |
| Guayanilla County | 34 | 5.9% | 73.5% | 20.6% | 1974 |
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 Salinas 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 Salinas County, both outside Puerto Rico so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside PR (40 bridges here).
- Taliaferro County, GA · 40 bridges
- Clark County, ID · 40 bridges
- St. John the Baptist County, LA · 40 bridges
- Douglas County, MN · 40 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside PR (1976 here).
- Marion County, IN · avg 1976 · 958 bridges
- Mohave County, AZ · avg 1976 · 641 bridges
- Comanche County, OK · avg 1976 · 593 bridges
- Prince George's County, MD · avg 1976 · 576 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (8)
Off PR-3 Km.153.20
PoorOver: Unnamed Creek
NE PR3 & PR-706, Salinas, PR
Built 1988 Load: 31.9 t ADT: 20,400
PR 52 NORTHBOUND
PoorOver: HONDA CREEK
2 KM NORTH OF SALINAS, Salinas, PR
Built 1971 Load: 44.8 t ADT: 18,900
PR 1
PoorOver: LAPA RIVER
10.5 KM S W OF CAYEY, Salinas, PR
Built 1926 Load: 45.0 t ADT: 3,900
PR 52 SOUTHBOUND
PoorOver: MAJADAS RIVER & PR 7
10 km N.E. OF SALINAS, Salinas, PR
Built 1972 Load: 47.9 t ADT: 34,900
PR 52 NORTHBOUND
PoorOver: MAJADAS RIVER & PR 7
10 KM N E OF SALINAS, Salinas, PR
Built 1972 Load: 47.9 t ADT: 17,450
PR 52 SOUTHBOUND
PoorOver: PR 1
0.5 KM NORTH OF SALINAS, Salinas, PR
Built 1972 Load: 49.2 t ADT: 17,300
PR 53 EASTBOUND
PoorOver: PR 706
8 KM NORTHEAST OF SALINAS, Salinas, PR
Built 1992 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 9,250
PR 53 WESTBOUND
PoorOver: PR 706
8 KM NORTHEAST OF SALINAS, Salinas, PR
Built 1992 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 9,250
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.