Total bridges
254
Public highway bridges in Skagit County
County profile · official public datasets
Skagit County, WA
254 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.2% rated Good, 59.4% Fair, 2.4% Poor.
- 254
- Public bridges
- 38.2%
- Good condition
- 2.4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Skagit County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 13%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.4%
- Poor-condition share
- 254
- public highway bridges
- 1972
- 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.
Skagit County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Skagit County ranks #5 of 39 Washington counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.4%). Skagit County, Washington contains 254 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.2% are rated “Good,” 59.4% “Fair,” and 2.4% “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
38.2%
97 of 254 rated 7-9
Fair condition
59.4%
151 of 254 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.4%
6 of 254 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#5 of 39
Among Washington counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 254 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 38.2% (97)
Fair 59.4% (151)
Poor 2.4% (6)
Skagit County's Poor-condition bridges carry 42,734 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry the same share of traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 7,122 crossings a day against 8,191 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 254 of 254 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
63.8% of Skagit County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
162 of the 254 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 38.2% 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 62.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
I-5 over SAMISH RIVER PVT RD, built 1963, carries 26,524 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 42,734 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Skagit County's bridges were built
254 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s 8
1930–1939
8 bridges
- 1940s 9
1940–1949
9 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
51 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
61 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
38 bridges
- 1980s 19
1980–1989
19 bridges
- 1990s 13
1990–1999
13 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
32 bridges
- 2010s 11
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 3
2020–2029
3 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 61 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1972) matches the Washington average (1975).
How Skagit County compares with Washington's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Washington counties nearest Skagit County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.4% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 38 Washington counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kittitas County | 308 | 39% | 50.6% | 10.4% | 1973 |
| Spokane County | 307 | 51.1% | 42% | 6.8% | 1978 |
| Grant County | 306 | 63.7% | 33.7% | 2.6% | 1973 |
| Skagit County (this page) | 254 | 38.2% | 59.4% | 2.4% | 1972 |
| Clark County | 218 | 55% | 40.8% | 4.1% | 1979 |
| Thurston County | 205 | 59.5% | 39.5% | 1% | 1979 |
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 Skagit 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 Skagit County, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside WA (254 bridges here).
- Manatee County, FL · 254 bridges
- Ottawa County, MI · 254 bridges
- Wagoner County, OK · 254 bridges
- Coos County, OR · 254 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside WA (1972 here).
- Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
- Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
- Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
- York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (254)
I-5
PoorOver: SAMISH RIVER PVT RD
2.9 N JCT SR 11, Skagit, WA
Built 1963 Load: 31.1 t ADT: 26,524
F&S GRADE ROAD
PoorOver: SAMISH RIVER
0.14 S JCT PRAIRIE RD, Skagit, WA
Built 1974 Load: 31.8 t ADT: 630
BAY VIEW-EDISON RD
PoorOver: JOE LEARY SLOUGH
5.8 N JCT SR-20, Skagit, WA
Built 1955 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 588
SCOTT PAPER CO RD
PoorOver: SR 20
10.8 E JCT SR 9, Skagit, WA
Built 1967 Load: 66.2 t ADT: 75
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.