Total bridges
88
Public highway bridges in Clearwater County
County profile · official public datasets
Clearwater County, ID
88 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.2% rated Good, 51.1% Fair, 5.7% Poor.
- 88
- Public bridges
- 43.2%
- Good condition
- 5.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Clearwater County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- 26th
- of 44 on Poor share
- 5.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 88
- public highway bridges
- 1973
- 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.
Clearwater County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Clearwater County ranks #26 of 44 Idaho counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.7%). Clearwater County, Idaho contains 88 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.2% are rated “Good,” 51.1% “Fair,” and 5.7% “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
43.2%
38 of 88 rated 7-9
Fair condition
51.1%
45 of 88 rated 5-6
Poor condition
5.7%
5 of 88 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#26 of 44
Among Idaho counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 88 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 43.2% (38)
Fair 51.1% (45)
Poor 5.7% (5)
Clearwater County's Poor-condition bridges carry 300 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 60 crossings a day against 258 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.
Computed over the 88 of 88 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
63.6% of Clearwater County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
56 of the 88 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 43.2% 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.
One structure carries 46.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
NO DATA ENTERED over OROFINO CREEK, built 1958, carries 140 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 300 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Clearwater County's bridges were built
88 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
16 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
24 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
18 bridges
- 1980s 5
1980–1989
5 bridges
- 1990s 2
1990–1999
2 bridges
- 2000s 6
2000–2009
6 bridges
- 2010s 8
2010–2019
8 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 24 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1973, 6 years older than the Idaho average of 1979.
How Clearwater County compares with Idaho's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Idaho counties nearest Clearwater County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 43 Idaho counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaine County | 96 | 25% | 71.9% | 3.1% | 1978 |
| Boise County | 88 | 46.6% | 47.7% | 5.7% | 1978 |
| Clearwater County (this page) | 88 | 43.2% | 51.1% | 5.7% | 1973 |
| Adams County | 87 | 32.2% | 57.5% | 10.3% | 1975 |
| Boundary County | 83 | 32.5% | 57.8% | 9.6% | 1982 |
| Gooding County | 80 | 16.3% | 76.3% | 7.5% | 1965 |
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 Clearwater 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 Clearwater County, both outside Idaho so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside ID (88 bridges here).
- Chicot County, AR · 88 bridges
- Prairie County, AR · 88 bridges
- Grand County, CO · 88 bridges
- Spalding County, GA · 88 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside ID (1973 here).
- Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
- Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
- Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
- Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (5)
MAIN STREET SOUTH
PoorOver: JIM FORD CREEK
IN WEIPPE;MAIN ST. SOUTH, Clearwater, ID
Built 1965 Load: 20.9 t ADT: 80
NO DATA ENTERED
PoorOver: OROFINO CREEK
MILL POND, Clearwater, ID
Built 1958 Load: 25.3 t ADT: 140
FDR 382
PoorOver: ELK CREEK
5 MILES FROM ELK RIVER ID, Clearwater, ID
Built 1961 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 20
FDR 382
PoorOver: ELK CREEK
4 MILES FROM ELK RIVER ID, Clearwater, ID
Built 1961 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 20
NO DATA ENTERED
PoorOver: OSIER CREEK
2.0 MI N OF OLD KELLY CR, Clearwater, ID
Built 1954 Load: 37.6 t ADT: 40
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.