County profile · official public datasets

Blackford County, IN

73 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.5% rated Good, 63% Fair, 5.5% Poor.

73
Public bridges: 31.5%
Good condition: 5.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Blackford County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

56th
of 92 on Poor share: 5.5%
Poor-condition share: 73
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Blackford County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Blackford County ranks #56 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.5%). Blackford County, Indiana contains 73 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.5% are rated “Good,” 63% “Fair,” and 5.5% “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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Blackford County

Good condition

31.5%

23 of 73 rated 7-9

Fair condition

63%

46 of 73 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.5%

4 of 73 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#56 of 92

Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 73 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

31.5% (23)

Fair

63% (46)

Poor

5.5% (4)

Blackford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,693 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 673 crossings a day against 763 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 73 of 73 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

30.1% of Blackford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

22 of the 73 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 31.5% 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 83.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 3 over PRAIRIE CREEK, built 1932, carries 2,249 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,693 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

2
1950s

2
1960s

12
1970s

8
1980s

19
1990s

14
2000s

11
2010s

3
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 19 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 5 years newer than the Indiana average of 1978.

How Blackford County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Blackford County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 5 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Blackford County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Noble County	89	41.6%	49.4%	9%	1973
Starke County	86	53.5%	40.7%	5.8%	1987
Fulton County	85	36.5%	58.8%	4.7%	1977
Blackford County (this page)	73	31.5%	63%	5.5%	1983
Switzerland County	62	41.9%	50%	8.1%	1982
Union County	58	27.6%	67.2%	5.2%	1973

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 Blackford 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 Blackford County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (73 bridges here).

Stone County, AR · 73 bridges
Levy County, FL · 73 bridges
Putnam County, FL · 73 bridges
Dade County, GA · 73 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 73 Good 23 Fair 46 Poor 4

All bridges (73)

Sort:

Blackford County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Blackford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,693 vehicle crossings a day

30.1% of Blackford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 83.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Blackford County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

All bridges (73)

CR 200 SOUTH

SR 26

SR 26

SR 26

CR 875 EAST

CR 300 SOUTH

CR 100E

CR 350 WEST

CR 825 EAST

ANGLING ROAD

SR 167

CR 300 EAST

CENTER STREET

CROSS ST/CR 75 E

CR 900 EAST

CR 300 EAST

SR 18

CR 400 SOUTH

SR 18

SR 3

CR 700 EAST

CR 450 SOUTH

WILLMAN ROAD

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