Total bridges
63
Public highway bridges in Highlands County
County profile · official public datasets
Highlands County, FL
63 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 47.6% rated Good, 50.8% Fair, 1.6% Poor.
- 63
- Public bridges
- 47.6%
- Good condition
- 1.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Highlands County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 37%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 63
- public highway bridges
- 1972
- avg year built
Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.
Highlands County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Highlands County ranks #25 of 67 Florida counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.6%). Highlands County, Florida contains 63 public highway bridges. Roughly 47.6% are rated “Good,” 50.8% “Fair,” and 1.6% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.
Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.
Good condition
47.6%
30 of 63 rated 7-9
Fair condition
50.8%
32 of 63 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.6%
1 of 63 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#25 of 67
Among Florida counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 63 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 47.6% (30)
Fair 50.8% (32)
Poor 1.6% (1)
57.1% of Highlands County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
36 of the 63 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 47.6% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.
Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Highlands County's bridges were built
63 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 6
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
21 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
12 bridges
- 1980s 7
1980–1989
7 bridges
- 1990s 7
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s 4
2000–2009
4 bridges
- 2010s 1
2010–2019
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 21 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 11 years older than the Florida average of 1983.
How Highlands County compares with Florida's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Florida counties nearest Highlands County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.6% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 66 Florida counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Okeechobee County | 67 | 46.3% | 53.7% | 0% | 1973 |
| Highlands County (this page) | 63 | 47.6% | 50.8% | 1.6% | 1972 |
| Gulf County | 62 | 19.4% | 67.7% | 12.9% | 1973 |
| Hamilton County | 60 | 35% | 63.3% | 1.7% | 1968 |
| Hernando County | 60 | 83.3% | 16.7% | 0% | 1985 |
| Madison County | 60 | 41.7% | 55% | 3.3% | 1968 |
Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Highlands County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year
Two NBI-derived peer sets for Highlands County, both outside Florida so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside FL (63 bridges here).
- Chattahoochee County, GA · 63 bridges
- Red River County, LA · 63 bridges
- Lincoln County, ME · 63 bridges
- Gladwin County, MI · 63 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside FL (1972 here).
- Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
- Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
- Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
- York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (1)
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.