Earth Support Corp

Infrastructure & hazardsNew England

One in 12 New England bridges is in poor condition

Of 18,418 highway bridges in the six states, 1,518 are rated poor, 129 are closed and 1,408 carry a weight limit. The typical poor bridge was built in 1951. Every one is on the map below — with its traffic, what it crosses and who owns it.
  • Live · as of Mar 31, 2025(older data)
  • 18,418 records
  • Every NBI bridge in CT ME MA NH RI VT
  • 4 sources · method

Data as of Mar 31, 2025.

Bridges in poor condition

1,518

8.2% of 18,418 — about 1 in 12

Closed to traffic

129

71% of them owned by a town or city

Weight-posted

1,408

plus 220 open only on temporary shoring

Typical poor bridge built

1951

median; 46% of poor bridges predate 1950

01 · The map

Every bridge, colored by its weakest part

Each dot is one bridge in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025, colored by its lowest condition rating and sized by the traffic it carries. Poor bridges show by default; add fair and good ones, pick a state, or show only the 129 that are closed. Hover or tap a dot for its ratings.

1,518 poor bridges carry 16.3 million vehicle crossings a day

Lowest of the deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert rating (0–9). Closed bridges are drawn as rings.
Lowest component ratingCritical0–2Serious3Poor4Fair5–6Good7–9ClosedSize = daily traffic
n = 18,414 mapped bridges (4 have no coordinates)Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025CSV

02 · State by state

Maine has the most bridges in poor shape; Vermont the fewest

15.4% of Maine’s bridges are rated poor, against 4.0% in Vermont. Massachusetts has the most in absolute terms (501) and leans hardest on temporary shoring to keep bridges open — 164 of the region’s 220.

  • good
  • fair
  • poor
State scorecard CSV

  1. Maine

    2,542 bridges

    15.4%in poor condition

    Poor
    392
    Closed
    22
    Weight-posted
    137
    Temp. shoring
    6

    Median year built 1967 · poor bridges 1949

  2. Rhode Island

    787 bridges

    14.0%in poor condition

    Poor
    110
    Closed
    7
    Weight-posted
    87
    Temp. shoring
    1

    Median year built 1967 · poor bridges 1962

  3. Massachusetts

    5,311 bridges

    9.4%in poor condition

    Poor
    501
    Closed
    44
    Weight-posted
    462
    Temp. shoring
    164

    Median year built 1961 · poor bridges 1955

  4. New Hampshire

    2,549 bridges

    7.5%in poor condition

    Poor
    192
    Closed
    15
    Weight-posted
    105
    Temp. shoring
    12

    Median year built 1968 · poor bridges 1941

  5. Connecticut

    4,363 bridges

    4.8%in poor condition

    Poor
    209
    Closed
    17
    Weight-posted
    159
    Temp. shoring
    4

    Median year built 1965 · poor bridges 1956

  6. Vermont

    2,866 bridges

    4.0%in poor condition

    Poor
    114
    Closed
    24
    Weight-posted
    458
    Temp. shoring
    33

    Median year built 1966 · poor bridges 1934

Towns own 33% of the bridges — and 71% of the closed ones

Share of all bridges, against share of the closed and weight-posted ones, by owner.
  • Share of all bridges
  • Share of closures

  1. Town or city

    33% (6,142)
    71% (91)

  2. State

    63% (11,529)
    26% (33)

Weight postings follow the same pattern: towns hold 66% of them (926 of 1,408).

n = 18,418 bridges; 129 closed; 1,408 postedSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025CSV
▸ Show the numbers
OwnerBridgesPoor% poorClosedPosted
State11,5299137.9%33431
Town or city6,1425609.1%91926
Toll authority36192.5%02
Federal351318.8%445
Railroad or private35514.3%14

03 · The list

The 100 busiest bridges in poor condition

We took the poor-rated bridges that carry the most traffic and ranked them worst-first: lowest rating, then vehicles a day. The busiest, Rte 3 over Hwy Union St N Rotary in Braintree, carries 204,310 vehicles a day. 27 of the 100 are open only because of temporary shoring. Switch to the full list to search all 1,518.

Worst ratings first, then the heaviest traffic

D/S/Sub/C = deck, superstructure, substructure and culvert ratings on the 0–9 scale (– = not applicable); the lowest one sets the condition.

100 of 100 rows

Poor-condition bridges ranked by lowest rating, then daily traffic
MAI-495 SB over RR Pan Am368,981Temp. shoring
MAI-495 SB over Rte 38 Main St368,981Temp. shoring
MAI-290 EB over Hwy E Central St365,611Open
MAI-495 SB over Rte 110 / Rte 113 / Merrimack363,024Temp. shoring
MAI-290 WB over Hwy E Central St362,637Temp. shoring
MAI-495 NB over Water Merrimack River360,056Temp. shoring
MAI-495 SB over Hwy Boston Rd359,349Temp. shoring
MAI-495 NB over Rte 110 / Rte 113 / Merrimack358,225Temp. shoring
MAI-495 SB over RR MBTA / CSX351,588Closed
MAI-495 NB over I-90348,021Open
MAI-495 NB over RR MBTA / CSX346,713Temp. shoring
NHUS202 over NHRR Constitution Av.345,555Open
MARte 3 over Hwy Union St N Rotary4204,310Open
MAI-93 over I-95 / Rte 1284200,824Open
MAI-95 / Rte 128 over RR MBTA / BMRR4192,672Open
Page 1 / 7
Top 100 shown first; all 1,518 poor bridges searchableSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025CSV

04 · Built for another century

The typical poor bridge is 75 years old

The post-war building boom left the biggest cohort: the 1960s alone produced 290 of today’s poor bridges. But age is the stronger signal — 15.5% of bridges built before 1950 are poor, against 1.0% of those built since 2000. The worst decade by rate is the 1900s (17.3%).

84% of today’s poor bridges were built before 1970

Poor-condition bridges by decade built, stacked by state.
  • Connecticut
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont
050100150200250300<19001910s1930s1950s1970s1990s2010s
n = 1,505 poor bridges with a known yearSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025CSV
▸ Show the numbers
DecadeCTMEMANHRIVTPoorAll bridges% poor
pre-190022176833836210.5%
1900s442891045934117.3%
1910s11121517146036916.3%
1920s1042322942714483317.3%
1930s299882366202711,71415.8%
1940s1443272741012588814.1%
1950s5957107401162802,8359.9%
1960s41491291538182903,2089.0%
1970s192133161171071,7586.1%
1980s143113871741,4385.1%
1990s493423251,3391.9%
2000s1192121261,4231.8%
2010s12000031,3230.2%
2020s03000035050.6%

A bridge built before 1950 is 16× as likely to be poor as one built since 2000

Share of all bridges built in each decade that are rated poor today.
0%5%10%15%20%all bridges 8.2%<19001910s1930s1950s1970s1990s2010s
n = 18,336 bridges with a known yearSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025
▸ Show the numbers
DecadeBridgesPoor% poor
pre-19003623810.5%
1900s3415917.3%
1910s3696016.3%
1920s83314417.3%
1930s1,71427115.8%
1940s88812514.1%
1950s2,8352809.9%
1960s3,2082909.0%
1970s1,7581076.1%
1980s1,438745.1%
1990s1,339251.9%
2000s1,423261.8%
2010s1,32330.2%
2020s50530.6%

05 · Water is the enemy

71% of poor bridges cross water

Most New England bridges span a river, brook or harbor (65% of all of them). Moving water undermines footings — scour — and FHWA counts it as the most common cause of highway bridge failure nationally. Bridges whose foundations inspectors rate as scour critical are far more likely to be in poor shape.

21% of scour-critical bridges are rated poor

Share of bridges in each group rated poor.
  1. Scour critical197/952
    20.7%
  2. Over water1,076/12,057
    8.9%
  3. Not over water442/6,361
    6.9%
  4. All bridges
    8.2%

Another 227 bridges over water have foundations nobody has on record, so their scour risk can’t be assessed.

n = 18,418 bridges; 952 scour criticalSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025
▸ Show the numbers
GroupBridgesPoor% poor
Scour critical95219720.7%
Over water12,0571,0768.9%
Not over water6,3614426.9%

The superstructure is the part most often rated poor

Poor bridges with each component rated 4 or below. A bridge can count under more than one.
  1. Deck42%
    636
  2. Superstructure55%
    831
  3. Substructure33%
    504
  4. Culvert8%
    120

The substructure — abutments, piers and footings, the part in the ground and the water — is rated poor on 504 bridges. That is foundation work: underpinning, scour repair and support of excavation around live traffic.

n = 1,518 poor bridgesSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025
▸ Show the numbers
ComponentPoor bridges with it rated ≤ 4
Deck636
Superstructure831
Substructure504
Culvert120

06 · New Hampshire’s red list

338 New Hampshire bridges are on the Red List — 62% of them town-owned

NHDOT keeps its own list of deficient bridges under closer inspection. It is broader than the federal count: it includes 146 short spans under 20 ft that the NBI doesn’t carry. The median red-listed bridge was built in 1950, and 90% cross water.

Grafton County has the most red-listed bridges

Red-listed bridges by county; the split bar shows municipal vs state owners (county split in the table).
  • Municipal Red List210(62%)
  • State Red List128(38%)
  1. Grafton
    62
  2. Hillsborough
    52
  3. Cheshire
    50
  4. Merrimack
    48
  5. Rockingham
    31
  6. Strafford
    28
  7. Coos
    21
  8. Sullivan
    18
  9. Carroll
    15
  10. Belknap
    13
n = 338 red-listed bridgesSource: NHDOT, pulled Sep 11, 2026CSV
▸ Show the numbers
CountyRed-listedMunicipalState
Grafton624319
Hillsborough523814
Cheshire503218
Merrimack482127
Rockingham311714
Strafford281513
Coos21138
Sullivan18144
Carroll15114
Belknap1376

26 red-listed bridges are closed; 41 carry a tonnage limit

Red-listed bridges by NHDOT's weight-sign recommendation.
  1. E-/C- load class
    138
  2. No posting needed
    133
  3. Tonnage limit
    41
  4. Closed
    26

E- and C- codes are NHDOT’s own load-restriction classes; we report them as NHDOT records them.

The longest on the list: Road over Little Bay in Dover, 1,585 ft, built 1934. Towns with the most red-listed bridges: Concord (16), Keene (14), Dover (8).

n = 338 red-listed bridgesSource: NHDOT, pulled Sep 11, 2026
▸ Show the numbers
Weight signBridges
E-/C- load class138
No posting needed133
Tonnage limit41
Closed26

07 · What fixing them costs

Rhode Island has penciled in $606M for its 134 poor bridges

Of the six states’ public bridge feeds, only Rhode Island’s puts a price on each bridge: RIDOT’s inventory attaches a planned treatment and an estimated cost to 948 of its bridges; the 134 it rates poor account for $606M (median $1.8M a bridge). Rhode Island only — and these are planning estimates, not bids.

Scope. Rhode Island only, from RIDOT’s own condition rating and plan fields, pulled Sep 11, 2026. The NBI counts 110 poor bridges in Rhode Island; RIDOT’s layer carries its current ratings and 1,240 structures, including some outside the NBI, so its poor count differs.

Replacements are 47% of the bill

Estimated cost for RIDOT's poor bridges, by planned treatment.
  1. Replacen=39
    $283.5M
  2. Major Rehabn=27
    $141.6M
  3. Not yet assignedn=50
    $81M
  4. Amtrak Major Rehabn=5
    $60.7M
  5. Removaln=3
    $16.8M
  6. Minor Rehabn=3
    $15.5M
  7. Historic Major Rehabn=2
    $4.3M
  8. Preservationn=5
    $2.7M

Across all 948 Rhode Island bridges with an estimate, the total is $1.67B; fair-rated bridges account for 59% of it.

  • Good $70.5M(4%)
  • Fair $988M(59%)
  • Poor $606M(36%)
n = 134 poor bridges with a costSource: RIDOT, pulled Sep 11, 2026CSV
▸ Show the numbers
TreatmentBridgesEstimated cost
Replace39$284M
Major Rehab27$142M
Not yet assigned50$81.0M
Amtrak Major Rehab5$60.7M
Removal3$16.8M
Minor Rehab3$15.5M
Historic Major Rehab2$4.3M
Preservation5$2.7M

The Huntington Viaduct tops the list at $52.4M

The most expensive planned fixes among RIDOT's poor bridges.
BridgeEstimate
Huntington ViaductRI 10 Huntngtn Exp over I-95 NB & SB, Amtrak · Cranston · 1965 · Replace$52.4M
Dean StreetDean St over US 6 Harris Av & Amtrak · Providence · 1972 · Replace$49.5M
Goat Island CausewayGoat Isl Causeway over Newport Harbor · Newport · 1965 · Major Rehab$45.0M
Smithfield Ave RRRI 126 Smthfld Av over Amtrak & P&w RR · Providence · 1984 · Amtrak Major Rehab$42.0M
West Elmwood RRI-95 NB & SB over Amtrak · Providence · 1964 · Replace$30.8M
Pettaconsett AveI-95 NB & SB over Jefferson Blvd · Warwick · 1966 · Replace$25.0M
Ramp Ad Civic CenterRamp Ad over Amtrak,woon Rvr,ramp Bd · Providence · 1988 · Major Rehab$17.2M
Broad Street RailroadRI 114 Broad St over Amtrak & P&w RR · Pawtucket · 1900 · Replace$13.0M
Diamond Hill RoadRI 114 Dmnd Hll Rd over I-295 NB & SB · Cumberland · 1963 · Replace$11.3M
WanskuckRI 146 Ed Dowl Hwy over Branch Av · Providence · 1957 · Replace$11.0M
West Natick Road NBI-295 NB over Wash Sec Bike,w Natic Rd · West Warwick · 1968 · Replace$10.8M
Killingly StreetUS 6 EB & WB over RI 128 Killingly St · Providence · 1969 · Major Rehab$10.6M
12 of 134Source: RIDOT, pulled Sep 11, 2026

Where these numbers come from

Method, sources & caveats

What “poor” means. Inspectors rate a bridge’s deck, superstructure (the beams that carry the deck) and substructure (abutments, piers, footings) — or, for a culvert, the culvert itself — from 9 (excellent) to 0 (failed). FHWA calls a bridge poor when the lowest of those is 4 or below; that replaced the old “structurally deficient” label. A poor rating means the bridge needs significant repair and closer inspection. It does not mean it is unsafe to cross: when a bridge is unsafe for normal loads, the owner posts a weight limit, shores it, or closes it — which is why those status counts sit beside the ratings everywhere on this page.

How we built it. We read the FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025 delimited files for all six states (18,418 structures longer than 20 ft), decoded coordinates from the NBI’s degree-minute-second format, and named each bridge’s town from the Census town boundary its point falls in. The 100-bridge list takes the poor bridges with the highest reported daily traffic and orders them by lowest rating, then traffic. 82 bridges with a placeholder build year are left out of the age charts but kept in every other count.

  • Backbone is the FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025 release: every highway bridge longer than 20 ft in the six states (18,418 structures, culverts included). Latest inspection in the file: 2025-03; conditions change as states re-inspect.
  • “Poor” means the lowest of the deck, superstructure, substructure (or culvert) ratings is 4 or below on the NBI 0–9 scale. It is FHWA's successor to “structurally deficient”. Poor is not the same as unsafe: bridges that are unsafe are posted for lower loads, shored or closed.
  • Status is NBI item 41: closed (K); posted (P, R, B — load-posted or restricted); shored (D, E — open only because of temporary shoring or a temporary structure).
  • Traffic (ADT) is the latest count the state reported; 48% of counts are five or more years older than the 2025 release, and a closed bridge still shows its last count before closure.
  • MassDOT codes unknown build years as 1850 (82 structures); those are treated as unknown. Round years such as 1900 are often estimates.
  • 4 bridges have no usable coordinates in the NBI and are left off the map (they are in every count).
  • Over water = NBI item 42B service under is a waterway. Scour critical = item 113 codes 0–3 (foundations judged unstable or at risk from scour).
  • The New Hampshire Red List is NHDOT's own list and includes short “NH-definition” spans under 20 ft the NBI does not carry, so its counts do not match the NBI numbers. Pulled live 2026-09-11.
  • RIDOT costs are RIDOT's own estimates attached to each bridge in its public bridge layer (RhodeWorks program fields): a planned treatment and an estimated cost. They are Rhode Island only, are planning figures, not bids or awards. Pulled live 2026-09-11.
Data as of
Mar 31, 2025
Generated
Sep 11, 2026
Records
18,418
Refresh
Live pull · annual (FHWA NBI) + monthly state feeds

Published by Earth Support Corp as a public resource. Regional statistics for planning and curiosity. They are not an engineering report, a bid recommendation or a statement about any particular site, firm or project. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it. Full method: methodology.

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