County profile · official public datasets

Franklin County, WA

134 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56% rated Good, 39.6% Fair, 4.5% Poor.

134
Public bridges: 56%
Good condition: 4.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Franklin County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 41%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.5%
Poor-condition share: 134
public highway bridges: 1970
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.

Franklin County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Franklin County ranks #16 of 39 Washington counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.5%). Franklin County, Washington contains 134 public highway bridges. Roughly 56% are rated “Good,” 39.6% “Fair,” and 4.5% “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

134

Public highway bridges in Franklin County

Good condition

56%

75 of 134 rated 7-9

Fair condition

39.6%

53 of 134 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.5%

6 of 134 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#16 of 39

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

Condition distribution

Share of 134 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

56% (75)

Fair

39.6% (53)

Poor

4.5% (6)

Franklin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,725 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,788 crossings a day against 3,851 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 134 of 134 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

70.9% of Franklin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

95 of the 134 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 56% 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 83.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US 395 over CANAL AND ACCESS ROAD, built 1979, carries 8,919 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 10,725 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

1
1940s

1
1950s

59
1960s

28
1970s

12
1980s

8
1990s

8
2000s

11
2010s

4
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 59 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 44% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1970, 5 years older than the Washington average of 1975.

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

The 5 Washington counties nearest Franklin County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.5% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1970 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 5 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Franklin County and the 5 Washington counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Clallam County	151	56.3%	37.7%	6%	1979
Chelan County	149	57.7%	34.2%	8.1%	1974
Franklin County (this page)	134	56%	39.6%	4.5%	1970
Mason County	133	53.4%	42.1%	4.5%	1975
Pacific County	120	56.7%	37.5%	5.8%	1974
Skamania County	120	45.8%	45%	9.2%	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 Franklin 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 Franklin County, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WA (134 bridges here).

Anchorage County, AK · 134 bridges
Knott County, KY · 134 bridges
Murray County, MN · 134 bridges
Steele County, MN · 134 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WA (1970 here).

Hamilton County, OH · avg 1970 · 783 bridges
Yavapai County, AZ · avg 1970 · 543 bridges
Garfield County, OK · avg 1970 · 504 bridges
San Luis Obispo County, CA · avg 1970 · 401 bridges

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

All 134 Good 75 Fair 53 Poor 6

All bridges (134)

Sort:

SR 260

Fair

Over: US 395

JCT US 395, Franklin, WA

Built 1995 Load: 47.2 t ADT: 3,287

US 395 NB

Fair

Over: LEWIS ST

0.4 N BENTON CO, Franklin, WA

Built 1953 Load: 59.0 t ADT: 25,872

COUNTY ROAD

Fair

Over: ELTOPIA BRANCH CANAL

2.91 JCT R SR-395, Franklin, WA

Franklin County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Franklin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,725 vehicle crossings a day

70.9% of Franklin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 83.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Franklin 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

All bridges (134)

SR 260

US 395 NB

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ARTERIAL

WAREHOUSE LANE

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY ARTERIAL

COUNTY ARTERIAL

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ARTERIAL

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY ROAD

MERION ROAD

COUNTY ARTERIAL

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

KRUG ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

PARADISE ROAD

COUNTY ARTERIAL

US 395

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

SR 260

COUNTY ARTERIAL

PARK ENTRANCE

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

HEADWORKS SERVICE

COUNTY ROAD

SR 21

COUNTY ROAD

SR 260

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD

SAGEMOOR PUMP PLNT

COUNTY ROAD

COUNTY ROAD 68

MAJOR ARTERIAL RD

COUNTY ARTERIAL

COUNTY ROAD

ROAD 44

SR 263

CHUTE ACCESS

MAINTENANCE ROAD

SR 397 / AINSWORTH

Related