Scale and Age
New York has 17,666 bridges, the 4th-largest inventory in the country. (ARTBA 2025) Of those, 1,741 are rated in poor condition, a rate of 10% against a national average of 6.7%. The ASCE gave the state a C- for bridges in 2022, noting that the poor rate sits well above the national mark. (ARTBA 2025; ASCE 2022)
Illinois also sits at 10%, ranked #11, but the two states tell different stories. Illinois has 26,927 bridges and 2,563 in poor condition, which is a volume problem spread across a much larger inventory. New York's 17,666 bridges are fewer in number but older on average, and the cost of fixing them is far higher per structure. This is an age-and-cost story, not a volume story. (ARTBA 2025)
The average bridge in New York is 50 years old, which matches the design life that most of these structures were engineered for. Bridges rated poor average 70 years. NYC's local bridges average 75 years, and 38% of Dutchess County's bridges were built before 1950. The inventory did not deteriorate unevenly. It aged out all at once. (FHWA NBI; NY State Comptroller)
The design-life threshold: Most of New York's bridges were engineered for a 50-year service life. The statewide average has reached that mark, which means the inventory is not failing prematurely. It is aging out on schedule, all at once, across 17,666 structures.
The Upstate/Downstate Split
The worst local bridge conditions in New York are not in New York City. Mid-Hudson has 13.9% of local bridges in poor condition, and the Capital District is close behind at 13.7%. Long Island sits at 3.2%, and NYC at 7.1%. (NY State Comptroller, 2017 NBI data)
But when you look at dollars instead of percentages, the picture inverts. NYC accounts for $19.1 billion of the $29 billion local bridge maintenance backlog, roughly 66.7% of the total. The rest of the state carries $9.6 billion. NYC has 60 poor local bridges compared to Ulster County's 63, but the per-bridge repair cost in the city is dramatically higher because of the scale, age, and complexity of its structures. (NY State Comptroller)
| Region | % Local Bridges Poor | Key Context |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-Hudson | 13.9% | Worst regional rate |
| Capital District | 13.7% | Second-worst regional rate |
| New York City | 7.1% | $19.1B of $29B backlog |
| Long Island | 3.2% | Best regional rate |
| Statewide | 10% | #10 nationally |
Upstate counties carry the worst rates. Ulster County leads the state with 63 poor local bridges. Columbia County has 34, Orange County has 31, and Rensselaer County has 31. Schenectady County is the only county in the state with zero poor local bridges. The statewide 10% figure obscures this divide: upstate carries the worst rates, while NYC carries the worst bill. (NY State Comptroller)
Ownership and the Condition Gap
Local governments own 50.6% of New York's bridges, roughly 8,891 of the statewide inventory. Counties own more than two-thirds of all local bridges (over 6,000), towns own 16%, and cities and municipalities own 12%. That 50/50 state-local ownership split means roughly half the inventory depends on county and municipal budgets that compete with every other local priority. (FHWA NBI 2023)
The condition gap between state and local bridges is meaningful. According to a State Comptroller's report using 2017-era NBI data, 12.8% of locally owned bridges were rated poor compared to 9.0% of state-owned bridges. Those figures reflect conditions as of that reporting period and should not be read as current rates. (NY State Comptroller, 2017 NBI data)
On the state side, jurisdiction is fragmented across NYSDOT, the Thruway Authority (817 bridges), MTA, Port Authority, and NYC DOT (789 bridges and tunnels). Each agency maintains a separate inventory with separate funding streams and separate capital plans. (FHWA NBI; NYSDOT)
The full state profile is available on ARTBA's New York bridge report.
The BQE and Bridges Under Stress
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway's cantilevered triple-deck section between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street has required repeated emergency-level intervention over the past several years. A stretch over Flushing Avenue near the Brooklyn Navy Yard carries nearly 138,000 vehicles daily, 13% of them trucks, and the structure has been under various forms of remediation since well before the current repair cycle. (NYC DOT)
NYC DOT launched the nation's first automated weigh-in-motion enforcement system on the BQE in November 2023, which reduced overweight truck crossings by 64%. Interim structural repairs in October 2023 and April 2024 added new concrete and reinforcing steel to the most deteriorated sections. A full reconstruction is expected to extend into the early 2030s. (NYC DOT)
Beyond the BQE, 118 local bridge sections citywide were found in poor condition in 2024, slightly more than the prior year. Two segments carry critical scour ratings: the Harlem River Drive at 155th Street and the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge near Jacob Riis Park. In 2022, 30 city-owned bridges were load-posted. (NYC DOT; FHWA NBI 2024)
The BQE is the most visible example of what happens when aging infrastructure meets deferred reconstruction, but it is not an outlier. It sits inside a system where the average local bridge is 75 years old and the backlog runs to $19.1 billion. (NYC DOT; NY State Comptroller)
Funding: Large Numbers, Larger Gap
New York's five-year DOT Capital Plan stands at $34.1 billion, adopted in 2022 and the largest in state history. The FY2026 budget includes nearly $7 billion for year four of the plan, plus $800 million to offset construction cost inflation. (NYSDOT; NY State Budget)
Federal money adds a meaningful layer. The IIJA Bridge Formula Program allocates approximately $1.9 billion to New York over five years, with $378.4 million in the first year. The Bridge NY program, created in 2016, has funded more than 800 projects totaling nearly $1.7 billion. In 2024, Governor Hochul announced $484 million for 216 projects across 137 local governments. (FHWA; NYSDOT)
The Thruway Authority's 2025 budget puts $477.3 million toward capital projects, targeting replacement or rehabilitation of 20% of its 817 bridges. High-profile replacements like the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (replacing the Tappan Zee) and the Kosciuszko Bridge show the state can execute on marquee projects. (Thruway Authority; NYSDOT)
But the backlog outpaces spending. FHWA estimates $3.6 billion to address all structurally deficient bridges statewide, and the local bridge backlog alone is $29 billion. TRIP reported that NYSDOT capital investment in state and locally owned bridges dropped 20% from 2022 to 2023, which raises a question about whether even the flat trend line holds. The numbers on the spending side are large. The numbers on the backlog side are larger. (FHWA; TRIP) The backlog figures come from the NY State Comptroller's report on locally owned bridges.
Trend Line
The overall trajectory is flat with slight recent deterioration. Local bridge poor rates fell from 12.1% in 2017 to 10% in 2023, but part of that apparent improvement is an artifact of the 2018 FHWA definition change, which reduced the national count by about 7,000 bridges without any physical repairs taking place. (FHWA; ARTBA 2025)
The 20% drop in NYSDOT bridge investment from 2022 to 2023 complicates the picture. High-profile replacements demonstrate execution capacity, but the backlog is made up of thousands of smaller structures, not a handful of marquee crossings. The Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge replaced the Tappan Zee, and the Kosciuszko Bridge was rebuilt from scratch, yet neither project moved the statewide percentage. (TRIP; NYSDOT)
The state's 10% rate has been essentially flat for years. Whether it stays flat depends on whether the spending trajectory from 2022 to 2023 was a one-year dip or the start of a longer pattern. (ARTBA 2025)
What It Costs Drivers and the Economy
A February 2026 TRIP analysis estimates that deteriorated, congested, and unsafe roads and bridges cost New York motorists over $40 billion per year, with some urban drivers paying up to $3,755 annually. Rough roads alone cost the average driver $733 per year, totaling $8.9 billion statewide. (TRIP, Feb 2026)
New York moves $1.3 trillion in goods annually, mostly by truck, and that freight volume is projected to increase 154% by 2045. The Williamsburg Bridge carries 111,000 vehicle crossings on an average weekday, and the Manhattan Bridge handles 75,000. Weight restrictions on 637 bridges statewide force detours for emergency vehicles, commercial trucks, school buses, and farm equipment. (ASCE 2022; FHWA NBI)
These are not abstract figures. A weight-posted bridge on a commercial route means a loaded truck either makes an illegal crossing or adds miles to every trip. A closed bridge in a rural county means a volunteer fire department takes a longer route to a structure fire. The cost shows up in freight rates, vehicle wear, response times, and insurance premiums, whether or not it appears in a line item. (TRIP; ASCE 2022)
What "Poor Condition" Means
A bridge is classified as being in "poor condition" if any one of its three primary components (deck, superstructure, or substructure) receives a rating of 4 or below on the NBI's 0-to-9 scale. A poor rating does not mean a bridge is unsafe or at risk of collapse. It means the bridge has deteriorated to the point where it needs repair or replacement. Bridges rated poor are typically subject to increased inspection frequency, load restrictions, or both.
Data Sources
Statewide totals (17,666 bridges, 1,741 poor, 10%, rank #10) are from the ARTBA 2025 Bridge Report, based on 2025 FHWA National Bridge Inventory data. Regional poor rates and the local bridge backlog ($29 billion total, $19.1 billion NYC) are from the New York State Comptroller's report on locally owned bridges, which uses 2017-era NBI data. Ownership breakdowns are from the FHWA NBI 2023. BQE data is from NYC DOT. Motorist cost data is from TRIP's February 2026 analysis. The ASCE grade (C-) is from the ASCE 2022 Infrastructure Report Card for New York.
Caveats
Bridge inspection practices and rating standards can vary by inspector and agency. The NBI captures a snapshot in time; individual bridge conditions change between inspection cycles. Regional poor rates (13.9%, 13.7%, 7.1%, 3.2%) are from the State Comptroller's report using 2017-era data and should not be conflated with current ARTBA statewide figures. The 2018 FHWA definition change reduced the national poor bridge count by approximately 7,000 without any physical repairs, which affects trend comparisons across that threshold. Percentages are rounded to whole numbers except for the national average (6.7%) and regional rates as published by the Comptroller.