Hwy First St over Water Broad Canal

Middlesex County, Massachusetts · rated Poor in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory

United States Bridge Conditions2025 National Bridge Inventory, FHWACompiled August 20, 2026

• Hwy First St over Water Broad Canal in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, is rated in poor condition in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory (as of August 20, 2026).
• Its lowest-rated component is the superstructure, rated 4 (poor condition) on the 0-9 scale.
• It was built in 1924 and reconstructed in 2000, making it 101 years old at the 2025 inventory.
• It carries about 15,388 vehicles a day (traffic count year 2024).
• Its listed owner is the state highway agency.
• It is one of 91 of the 821 inventoried bridges in Middlesex County rated poor (11.1%); 91 (11.1%) are rated poor.
• Its traffic status in the 2025 inventory is posted for load (NBI item 41).
• Its class is unchanged from 2024 (poor), but component ratings moved: superstructure 5 to 4.
• Its most recent inspection on record is dated June 2024, on a 12-month routine inspection cycle.
• It has fracture-critical members (NBI item 92A): steel tension members without a redundant load path, which get their own scheduled inspections.
• A poor rating means at least one major component - deck, superstructure, or substructure - is rated 4 or lower on FHWA's 0-9 scale. It does not by itself mean the bridge is unsafe; bridges judged unsafe are closed or load-restricted by their owners.

View this bridge on a map → (42.3625, -71.07885)

Component ratings

Bridge details

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2025 data as reported by the Massachusetts department of transportation.

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Background: how bridge ratings work · what "poor" and "structurally deficient" actually mean · how often bridges are inspected.