County profile · official public datasets

Pend Oreille County, WA

71 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.9% rated Good, 32.4% Fair, 12.7% Poor.

71
Public bridges: 54.9%
Good condition: 12.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Pend Oreille County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

39th
of 39 on Poor share: 12.7%
Poor-condition share: 71
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Pend Oreille County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Pend Oreille County ranks #39 of 39 Washington counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12.7%). Pend Oreille County, Washington contains 71 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.9% are rated “Good,” 32.4% “Fair,” and 12.7% “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 Pend Oreille County

Good condition

54.9%

39 of 71 rated 7-9

Fair condition

32.4%

23 of 71 rated 5-6

Poor condition

12.7%

9 of 71 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#39 of 39

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

Condition distribution

Share of 71 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.9% (39)

Fair

32.4% (23)

Poor

12.7% (9)

Pend Oreille County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,593 vehicle crossings a day

That is 9.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 288 crossings a day against 391 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 70 of 71 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43.7% of Pend Oreille County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

31 of the 71 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 54.9% 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 44.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 20 over TACOMA CR, built 1946, carries 1,157 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 2,593 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

4
1940s

3
1950s

12
1960s

9
1970s

4
1980s

7
1990s

7
2000s

9
2010s

12
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 12 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 6 years newer than the Washington average of 1975.

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

The 5 Washington counties nearest Pend Oreille County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12.7% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Pend Oreille County and the 5 Washington counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Klickitat County	90	24.4%	67.8%	7.8%	1975
Columbia County	86	45.3%	44.2%	10.5%	1979
Stevens County	75	40%	48%	12%	1973
Pend Oreille County (this page)	71	54.9%	32.4%	12.7%	1981
Garfield County	54	42.6%	50%	7.4%	1969
Ferry County	53	41.5%	49.1%	9.4%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside WA (71 bridges here).

Rio Grande County, CO · 71 bridges
Charlton County, GA · 71 bridges
Madison County, GA · 71 bridges
Taylor County, GA · 71 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside WA (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

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

All 71 Good 39 Fair 23 Poor 9

Fair-condition bridges (23)

Sort:

Pend Oreille County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Pend Oreille County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,593 vehicle crossings a day

43.7% of Pend Oreille County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 44.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Pend Oreille 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

Fair-condition bridges (23)

Sullivan Lake Rd

Fertile Valley Rd

NO DATA ENTERED

FS ROUTE NO. 311

NO DATA ENTERED

SR 31

SR 20

SR 31

NO DATA ENTERED

NO DATA ENTERED

SR 20

FS ROUTE NO. 312

NO DATA ENTERED

NO DATA ENTERED

Fifth Ave (Usk)

NO DATA ENTERED

FS ROUTE NO. 1075

NO DATA ENTERED

Middle Fork Rd

SR 31

SR 20

Sullivan Lake Rd

NO DATA ENTERED

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