25 larger South Coast bridges rated poor in state inspection data, nine of them in New Bedford
The state owns 21 of the 25, and one of them, an I-195 ramp in New Bedford, is closed.
NEW BEDFORD Twenty-five of the 244 larger bridges in the 15 South Coast towns are rated in poor condition in the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's bridge inspection data, and nine of them are in New Bedford, on the highway network around Interstate 195 and Route 18.
The region's share, 10.2%, sits a little below the statewide figure in the same data, where 581 of 5,344 such bridges, or 10.9%, are rated poor. Nationally, 41,148 of 624,939 bridges, or 6.6%, were in poor condition as of Aug. 4, according to the Federal Highway Administration's latest table, which counts Massachusetts at 542 poor bridges out of 5,333.
MassDOT owns 21 of the 25 South Coast bridges rated poor. The other four belong to the towns or the city they sit in: Pleasant Street over Muddy Cove Brook in Dighton, Jefferson Street over Sucker Brook in Fall River, Danforth Street over the Palmer River in Rehoboth and Fearing Hill Road over the Weweantic River in Wareham.
What a poor rating means
Inspectors score a bridge's deck, superstructure and substructure on a scale of 0 to 9. Under federal rules, a bridge whose lowest score is 4 or below is classified poor, a 5 or 6 is fair and a 7 to 9 is good. MassDOT's data also flags the same 25 bridges as structurally deficient.
A poor rating does not close a bridge by itself. The state lists each one as open, posted with a weight limit or closed. Of the 25, 19 are open with no posted limit, five carry weight limits and one, the westbound I-195 ramp the state calls Ramp C in New Bedford, is closed.
Town by town
The table covers bridges with spans greater than 20 feet, which MassDOT classes as National Bridge Inventory structures. It counts bridges by the town MassDOT lists for each one, and it includes state and town bridges alike.
| Town | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acushnet | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Dartmouth | 12 | 3 | 9 | 0 |
| Dighton | 14 | 5 | 8 | 1 |
| Fairhaven | 14 | 1 | 13 | 0 |
| Fall River | 58 | 19 | 36 | 3 |
| Freetown | 15 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Marion | 7 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Mattapoisett | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| New Bedford | 31 | 2 | 20 | 9 |
| Rehoboth | 10 | 1 | 6 | 3 |
| Rochester | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Somerset | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| Swansea | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Wareham | 40 | 8 | 29 | 3 |
| Westport | 17 | 0 | 17 | 0 |
| South Coast | 244 | 51 | 168 | 25 |
Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Somerset and Westport have no larger bridge rated poor. Rochester has none in this class at all, only smaller spans.
Where the poor bridges are
- New Bedford Five carry I-195 or its ramps: the highway over Purchase Street and the MBTA tracks, over County and State streets and over Ashley Boulevard, the eastbound ramp over Weld Street and the closed westbound Ramp C. The other four are Route 6 eastbound and westbound over Route 18, Hillman Street over Route 18 and Shawmut Avenue over I-195. The I-195 structures date to 1965 and the Route 6 and Hillman Street bridges to 1973, and all nine are state owned.
- Fall River North Main Street over Route 79, Jefferson Street over Sucker Brook (posted for weight) and I-195 over Quequechan Street.
- Freetown North Main Street over Route 24, Chace Road over Route 140 (posted for weight) and Route 24 over the Assonet River.
- Rehoboth I-195 eastbound over the Palmer River, Route 44 (Winthrop Street) over the Palmer River (posted for weight) and Danforth Street over the Palmer River.
- Wareham Route 6 (Marion Road) over the Weweantic River, Tihonet Road over Route 25 and Fearing Hill Road over the Weweantic River (posted for weight).
- Swansea Route 103 (Wilbur Avenue) and Route 6, both over the Cole River. The Route 6 span is the Margret F. Butler Gold Star Mother Memorial Bridge, as the data spells it.
- Marion and Dighton Route 6 over the Weweantic River in Marion, and Pleasant Street over Muddy Cove Brook in Dighton (posted for weight).
Smaller structures
MassDOT also tracks short span bridges of 10 to 20 feet and culverts of 4 to 10 feet, and says the culvert list is incomplete while an inventory is underway. Outside the larger class, 13 more South Coast structures are rated poor, including two short spans in Dighton over the Segreganset River, two in Westport on Drift and Cornell roads, two in Rehoboth on the Palmer River, one on Route 105 in Rochester, culverts on Front Street and North Front Street in Marion and the pedestrian bridge over Route 18 and Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford, which is closed.
Across every category, the data lists 14 South Coast structures posted for weight and four closed: the Ramp C bridge and the pedestrian bridge in New Bedford, the Hamlin Street short span over the Acushnet River in Acushnet and a Water Street culvert at Crab Pond in Fall River, whose record the state last updated in 2019.
How we did this
The figures come from MassDOT's public bridge map data. Most South Coast records were last refreshed Oct. 22, and the most recent inspection among the larger bridges was Oct. 20; 84 of the 244 were inspected this year. Bridges owned by federal agencies, other state entities or private owners are not in MassDOT's data. Counts follow the town MassDOT lists for each bridge.
What happens next
MassDOT refreshes this data from its Bridge Inspection Management System every two weeks, so a bridge's rating, weight posting or open status can change as new inspections are entered. The agency says its first complete inspection of short span bridges of 10 to 20 feet is in progress.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every figure comes from MassDOT's own bridge inspection data, pulled Oct. 25 from the agency's public map service, and from the Federal Highway Administration's 2026 bridge condition table; the condition classes come from the federal rule. We counted each town's bridges from the state's records and checked the totals against the statewide count from the same service. Years built of 1850 in the data look like placeholders for unknown dates, so we left them out.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (5)
- Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Bridges map layer (Bridge Points), records for the 15 South Coast towns384 records with town, owner, structure category, overall condition, structurally deficient flag, deck, superstructure, substructure and culvert ratings, posting status, year built and inspection date; refresh date Oct. 22, 2026. Pulled Oct. 25, 2026, 10:33 a.m. Read Oct. 25, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Bridges map layer, statewide counts by category and condition5,344 National Bridge Inventory bridges statewide, 581 rated poor and flagged structurally deficient. Read Oct. 25, 2026.
- Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Bridges map service descriptionData refreshed from the Bridge Inspection Management System biweekly; NBI structures of more than 20 feet, short spans 10 to 20 feet, culverts 4 to 10 feet with an incomplete inventory; federal, other state and private structures excluded. Read Oct. 25, 2026.
- Federal Highway Administration, Bridge Condition by Highway System, 2026 (workbook condition26.zip)As of Aug. 4, 2026: 624,939 bridges nationally, 41,148 poor; Massachusetts 5,333 bridges, 542 poor. Read Oct. 25, 2026.
- Code of Federal Regulations, 23 CFR 490.409Good, fair and poor classification from the lowest of the deck, superstructure and substructure ratings (culverts by their own rating). Read Oct. 25, 2026.