Middlesex CountyMassachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
10 of its 49 inventoried bridges are rated poor (20%, against 9% statewide). Bedrock sits a median 30 ft down across 244 logs, deeper than the Massachusetts median of 24 ft.
- Live · as of Sep 11, 2026
- 9 public sources · method
- ← All towns
Median depth to bedrock
30 ft
middle half 12–65 ft · 244 logs
Bridges rated poor
10
of 49 inventoried
Construction projects
63
median $1.8M · public bid results
FEMA repair $, Middlesex County
$656M
federal share since 2010 · county-wide
01 · Bridges
10 of 49 bridges are rated poor — above the Massachusetts rate of 9%
Every highway bridge and large culvert in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory that stands inside Newton. Median age 64 years; 1 posted for weight.
6% good, 20% poor
FHWA good / fair / poor rating — the lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert.
- Good3 · 6%
- Fair36 · 73%
- Poor10 · 20%
Structures by decade built
n = 49 structuresSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025
▸ Show the numbers▾ Hide the numbers
| Built | Structures |
|---|---|
| pre-1910 | 11 |
| 1910s | 1 |
| 1920s | 1 |
| 1930s | 6 |
| 1940s | 1 |
| 1950s | 3 |
| 1960s | 26 |
The poor-rated bridges
| Carries | Over | Built | Daily traffic |
|---|---|---|---|
| I 95 ST128 | QUINOBEQUIN RD | 1950 | 142,579 |
| ST 9 BOYLSTON ST | TR GREEN LINE D | 1905 | 96,206 |
| I 90 RAMPS A & B | CHARLES RIVER | 1957 | 80,100 |
| CENTRE ST | I 90 & CSX/MBTA | 1964 | 31,422 |
| WALNUT ST | TR GREEN LINE D | 1906 | 24,569 |
| WALNUT ST | I 90 & CSX/MBTA | 1964 | 19,784 |
| ST 16 WB/WSHGTN ST | I 90 & CSX/MBTA | 1964 | 18,491 |
| LOWELL AVE | I 90 & CSX/MBTA | 1964 | 14,224 |
| AUBURN ST | I 90 & CSX/MBTA | 1964 | 9,181 |
| HIGHLAND ST | I 90 & CSX/MBTA | 1964 | 6,724 |
02 · Ground
Rock turns up a median 30 ft down
From 244 depth-to-rock records inside Newton (MassGIS / MGS borings & well logs). Logs cluster where people drill wells and bore for roads, so treat this as the town’s pattern, not a site answer.
Half of Newton's logs reach rock between 12 and 65 ft
Depth to bedrock: 10th–90th percentile whisker, middle-half box, median tick; dashed line = Massachusetts median.
median 30 ftMA 24 ft
0255075 ft
n = 244 logsSource: MassGIS / MGS borings & well logs
▸ Show the numbers▾ Hide the numbers
| Depth to rock (ft) | Logs |
|---|---|
| 0–5 | 6 |
| 5–10 | 26 |
| 10–20 | 49 |
| 20–50 | 84 |
| 50–100 | 60 |
| 100+ | 19 |
Rock within 10 ft
18%
of logs (23% across Massachusetts). Shallow rock means ledge in excavations, refusal for driven piles and rock anchors rather than soil nails; deep ground means taller shoring and more groundwater. 31% of logs here go past 50 ft.
03 · Dams & disasters
Middlesex County has drawn $656M in federal disaster repair since 2010
FEMA Public Assistance is reported by county, so the figure below is Middlesex County-wide context, not a Newton number.
FEMA Public Assistance, Middlesex County
$656M
Federal share obligated across 1,729 projects in 12 declared disasters since 2010. The largest category is emergency protective measures (97%); roads & bridges took $1.2M.
04 · Money & permits
63 construction projects on file, median $1.8M — above the state's $1.5M
Public construction projects
63
Median estimated value $1.8M, middle half $720K–$9.5M, against $1.5M across Massachusetts. Capped total $587M (each project counted at no more than $100M). Public bid records compiled June 2026, heavy on 2021–22 — a sample, not an annual market.
05 · Next door
Newton and the 7 towns that border it
A dash means no data for that layer, not zero.
| Town | Poor bridges | Rock depth |
|---|---|---|
| Newton, MA | 10 / 49 | 30 ft |
| Boston, MA | 41 / 404 | 92 ft |
| Weston, MA | 1 / 43 | 12 ft |
| Wellesley, MA | 0 / 17 | 25 ft |
| Waltham, MA | 4 / 17 | 12 ft |
| Needham, MA | 2 / 14 | 15 ft |
| Brookline, MA | 0 / 10 | 11 ft |
| Watertown, MA | 0 / 4 | 51 ft |
Where these numbers come from
Method, sources & caveats
Newton is the Census county subdivision 2501745560 (Middlesex County). Every record is placed here by its coordinates, not by the place name the source uses. Construction-project figures come from Massachusetts public bid results, published as town-level counts, medians and capped totals (n ≥ 10).
- Towns are Census county subdivisions: cities, towns, plantations, and Maine/New Hampshire unorganized territories and townships. Every record is placed in a town by its coordinates (point-in-polygon), not by the source's own place label — so a bridge in Roxbury counts for Boston and a well in 'North Waltham' counts for Waltham.
- Bridges: FHWA NBI 2025, highway structures ≥ 20 ft including large culverts. 'Poor' is FHWA's good/fair/poor rating (lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert ≤ 4). Percent-poor is shown only for towns with at least 5 structures.
- Depth to bedrock is the median of driller- and boring-reported depths in the town, shown only where at least 10 logs exist. Water-well logs over-sample rural lots and hilltops; one town median never describes a particular site.
- Bedrock depths use the same state databases and filters as the Bedrock & soils module (bedrock wells and borings that reached rock, 0 < depth ≤ 400 ft, exact re-filings dropped), but every log is placed in a town by its coordinates rather than the driller's town field, so town counts can differ slightly between the two pages. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no statewide public well-log database with depths.
- Dams: only high-hazard-potential dams whose latest condition assessment is Poor or Unsatisfactory are counted (live NID). Connecticut and Rhode Island assessments may lag.
- FEMA Public Assistance dollars are federal share obligated for disasters declared since 2010, reported by county — they are county context, not a town figure.
- Grant awards are Massachusetts only (EEA Dam & Seawall program, MVP Action grants, CZM Coastal Resilience). Other states' programs are not yet included.
- Ground-related permit counts cover only the municipal portals the pipeline reads (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester, Framingham, Providence, Portsmouth, Hartford and a few others) — an absent count means 'not covered', not zero.
- Data as of
- Sep 11, 2026
- Generated
- Sep 11, 2026
- Records
- 367,748
- Refresh
- Live pull · weekly
- U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files — county subdivisions (2024, 1:500k)Public domain
- FHWA National Bridge Inventory (2025 delimited files)Public domain
- USACE National Inventory of DamsPublic domainHigh-hazard dams rated Poor or Unsatisfactory (live NID).
- USGS U.S. Landslide InventoryPublic domain
- MassGIS / Massachusetts Geological Survey — Bedrock Data PointsPublic recordBorings and well logs that reached rock (MassDEP well drillers, USGS, MWRA, MassDOT…); seismic/HVSR and map-derived shallow-bedrock/outcrop points excluded.
- NH DES Water Well Inventory, Maine Geological Survey Wells Database, Vermont DEC well recordsPublic recordBedrock wells only; driller-reported depth to bedrock / overburden thickness.
- OpenFEMA Public Assistance Funded Projects Details (v2)Public domain
- MA EEA / CZM grant awards — Dam & Seawall, MVP Action, CZM Coastal ResiliencePublic record
- Municipal open-data permit portals (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Providence, Portsmouth, others)Public recordOnly permits flagged as ground-related (retaining walls, excavation, foundations) are counted.
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.