U.S. Department of Transportation, Bridge Conditions
| Details | Locations of bridges in poor condition, count and percent of bridges in poor condition |
|---|---|
| Topics | transportation, public infrastructure, deteriorating infrastructure |
| Source | U.S. Department of Transportation |
| Years Available | 2025 |
| Geographies | Point, county subdivision, county, congressional district, metro area, state |
| Public Edition or Subscriber-only | Public Edition |
| Download Available | yes |
| For more information | http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/deficient.cfm |
| Last updated on PolicyMap | July 2025 |
Description:
Bridge conditions of Good, Fair and Poor are defined in accordance with the Pavement and Bridge Condition Performance Measure final rule published in January 2017. Bridge condition is determined by the lowest rating for deck condition, superstructure condition, substructure condition or culvert condition. If the lowest rating is greater than or equal to 7, the bridge is classified as Good; if less than or equal to 4, the bridge is classified as Poor; if equal to 5 or 6, the bridge is classified as Fair.
The source of the data is the National Bridge Inventory (NBI), a database of more than 600,000 bridges located on public roads. This data was compiled in 2020 by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and collected from individual state departments of transportation. Bridges are assigned geographic coordinates in the source data. Bridge condition information does not reflect recently implemented improvements.
Count and percent indicators were determined based on a spatial join performed by PolicyMap that involved matching geocoded bridge locations to standard Census geographic boundaries. Bridges without geographic coordinates assigned were not included in the spatial join.