Total bridges
180
Public highway bridges in Lincoln County
County profile · official public datasets
Lincoln County, WA
180 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 56.7% rated Good, 37.2% Fair, 6.1% Poor.
- 180
- Public bridges
- 56.7%
- Good condition
- 6.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lincoln County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- 23rd
- of 39 on Poor share
- 6.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 180
- public highway bridges
- 1965
- 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.
Lincoln County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lincoln County ranks #23 of 39 Washington counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.1%). Lincoln County, Washington contains 180 public highway bridges. Roughly 56.7% are rated “Good,” 37.2% “Fair,” and 6.1% “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.
Good condition
56.7%
102 of 180 rated 7-9
Fair condition
37.2%
67 of 180 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.1%
11 of 180 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#23 of 39
Among Washington counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 180 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 56.7% (102)
Fair 37.2% (67)
Poor 6.1% (11)
Lincoln County's Poor-condition bridges carry 11,500 vehicle crossings a day
That is 9.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,045 crossings a day against 312 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 180 of 180 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
62.8% of Lincoln County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
113 of the 180 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 56.7% 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 90.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I-90 over DOERSCHLAG RD, built 1968, carries 10,407 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 11,500 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lincoln County's bridges were built
180 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 9
1900–1909
9 bridges
- 1910s 11
1910–1919
11 bridges
- 1920s 3
1920–1929
3 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
19 bridges
- 1940s 12
1940–1949
12 bridges
- 1950s 9
1950–1959
9 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
25 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
32 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
13 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
31 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
13 bridges
- 2010s 3
2010–2019
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 32 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 10 years older than the Washington average of 1975.
How Lincoln County compares with Washington's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Washington counties nearest Lincoln County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.1% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 8 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 38 Washington counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walla Walla County | 195 | 64.1% | 27.2% | 8.7% | 1980 |
| Adams County | 187 | 35.3% | 54.5% | 10.2% | 1961 |
| Lincoln County (this page) | 180 | 56.7% | 37.2% | 6.1% | 1965 |
| Benton County | 167 | 58.7% | 35.9% | 5.4% | 1977 |
| Okanogan County | 161 | 46.6% | 45.3% | 8.1% | 1972 |
| Cowlitz County | 160 | 46.3% | 50% | 3.8% | 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 Lincoln 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 Lincoln County, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WA (180 bridges here).
- Blount County, AL · 180 bridges
- Craig County, OK · 180 bridges
- Wood County, WV · 180 bridges
- Lamar County, AL · 181 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WA (1965 here).
- Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
- Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
- Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
- Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (11)
BLENZ ROAD 45130
PoorOver: SINKING CREEK
5.07 SE FAS T220, Lincoln, WA
Built 1936 Load: 7.8 t ADT: 22
LAKEVIEW RANCH
PoorOver: CRAB CREEK
0.8 miles W of Odessa on, Lincoln, WA
Built 2004 Load: 9.4 t ADT: 4
ZELLMER ROAD 61240
PoorOver: CRAB CREEK
0.96 W FAS L221, Lincoln, WA
Built 1918 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 21
GEIB ROAD 43910
PoorOver: CORBETT DRAW
1.47 W SR 174, Lincoln, WA
Built 1940 Load: 12.0 t ADT: 35
NAFF ROAD
PoorOver: CRAB CREEK
5.52 W SR 231, Lincoln, WA
Built 1936 Load: 14.6 t ADT: 50
SEVENTH STREET
PoorOver: COTTONWOOD CREEK
0.01 S JCT US 2, Lincoln, WA
Built 1930 Load: 14.9 t ADT: 200
GILLILAND ROAD
PoorOver: CRAB CREEK
2.74 E FAS G221, Lincoln, WA
Built 1959 Load: 18.5 t ADT: 17
SR 23
PoorOver: CRAB CREEK
8.7 N JCT SR 231, Lincoln, WA
Built 1948 Load: 22.4 t ADT: 367
DUCK LAKE RD 92310
PoorOver: DUCK CREEK
18.69NE SR21 FAS302, Lincoln, WA
Built 1972 Load: 28.8 t ADT: 120
SR 21
PoorOver: SINKING CREEK
29.3 N JCT SR 28, Lincoln, WA
Built 1950 Load: 30.1 t ADT: 257
I-90
PoorOver: DOERSCHLAG RD
3.6 E ADAMS CO, Lincoln, WA
Built 1968 Load: 35.4 t ADT: 10,407
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.