County profile · official public datasets

Clark County, WA

218 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 55% rated Good, 40.8% Fair, 4.1% Poor.

218
Public bridges: 55%
Good condition: 4.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Clark County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 33%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.1%
Poor-condition share: 218
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.

Clark County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Clark County ranks #13 of 39 Washington counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.1%). Clark County, Washington contains 218 public highway bridges. Roughly 55% are rated “Good,” 40.8% “Fair,” and 4.1% “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

218

Public highway bridges in Clark County

Good condition

55%

120 of 218 rated 7-9

Fair condition

40.8%

89 of 218 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.1%

9 of 218 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#13 of 39

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

Condition distribution

Share of 218 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

55% (120)

Fair

40.8% (89)

Poor

4.1% (9)

Clark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 116,811 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 12,979 crossings a day against 12,667 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 218 of 218 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

47.7% of Clark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

104 of the 218 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 55% 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 35.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-5 over E FORK LEWIS RIVER, built 1939, carries 41,367 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 116,811 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

3
1920s

2
1930s

11
1940s

9
1950s

19
1960s

31
1970s

41
1980s

27
1990s

17
2000s

29
2010s

26
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 41 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Washington average (1975).

How Clark County compares with Washington's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Washington counties nearest Clark County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.1% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 8 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 38 Washington counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Clark County and the 5 Washington counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Skagit County	254	38.2%	59.4%	2.4%	1972
Clark County (this page)	218	55%	40.8%	4.1%	1979
Thurston County	205	59.5%	39.5%	1%	1979
Walla Walla County	195	64.1%	27.2%	8.7%	1980
Adams County	187	35.3%	54.5%	10.2%	1961
Lincoln County	180	56.7%	37.2%	6.1%	1965

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WA (218 bridges here).

Okaloosa County, FL · 218 bridges
Yellow Medicine County, MN · 218 bridges
Fillmore County, NE · 218 bridges
Newberry County, SC · 218 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WA (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 218 Good 120 Fair 89 Poor 9

Good-condition bridges (120)

Sort:

Clark County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Clark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 116,811 vehicle crossings a day

47.7% of Clark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 35.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Clark County compares with Washington'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 (120)

S-S RAMP

SR 500

SR 500

NW LA CENTER RD

SR 14

Amboy Road

NE Etna Road

SR 14

SR 500

NE DAVIS ROAD

SB I-5

NE Salmon Creel Av

NE 20TH AVE

NE Hwy 99

SR 502

NE 134TH ST

SR 14

SR 503

NE 199TH STREET

NE 78TH ST

SR 14 W-N RAMP

SR 14 W-N RAMP

SR 500

SR 500

NE 129TH ST

SR 501

NE 130TH AVENUE

SR 14

NB I-5

SR 14

LA CENTER ROAD

NE 50TH AVE

NE 15TH AVENUE

WASHOUGAL RIVER RD

Caples Road

Washougal River Rd

NE 119th Street

MAIN STREET

SR 500

SR 502

GRIST MILL RD

NE 88th Street

S-E RAMP

ST JOHNS BLVD

72ND AVE

FOURTH PLAIN BLVD.

FOURTH PLAIN BLVD

W MILL PLAIN BLVD

192ND AVE

I-205 W-N RAMP

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