Bridges

There are 114 bridges in the County inventory (this excludes private, city, forest service, and state bridges). 

For Bridge Load Limits please contact our office at 503-842-3419. 

Bridge Inspections

During the bridge construction boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s, little emphasis was placed on the safety inspection and maintenance of bridges. This changed when the 2,235-foot Silver Bridge, at Point Pleasant, West Virginia collapsed into the Ohio River on December 15th, 1967 – killing 46 people.

This tragic event aroused national interest in the safety inspection and maintenance of bridges. In 1971, the US Congress and the Secretary of Transportation established the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS).

The National Bridge Inspection Standards is a Federal regulation establishing requirements for bridge inspection procedures, frequency of inspections, qualifications of inspection personnel, inspection reports, and preparation and maintenance of a National Bridge Inventory (NBI). The NBIS apply to all structures of 20 feet or more in length which are located on public roads.

There are currently 98 bridges on the National Bridge Inventory which are located in Tillamook County. These structures are inspected every two years by certified bridge inspectors. To satisfy Federal regulations, the State is responsible for these inspections. The Oregon Department of Transportation contracts with engineering firms to perform inspections and submit reports.

There are 13 bridges in Tillamook County which are not on the National Bridge Inventory. These are bridges with lengths of less than 20 feet. These non-NBIS structures must also be inspected every two years by a certified bridge inspector using NBIS standards. It is the responsibility of local agencies to ensure that these bridges are inspected.  Tillamook County generally opts to conduct inspections of its non-NBIS bridges at the same time that ODOT has the NBIS bridges inspected.

For more information on bridges in general and throughout the state, please visit the ODOT website at  https://www.oregon.gov/odot/bridge/pages/index.aspx