Total bridges
185
Public highway bridges in Clay County
County profile · official public datasets
Clay County, IN
185 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 33% rated Good, 56.2% Fair, 10.8% Poor.
- 185
- Public bridges
- 33%
- Good condition
- 10.8%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Clay County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 87th
- of 92 on Poor share
- 10.8%
- Poor-condition share
- 185
- public highway bridges
- 1974
- 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.
Clay County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Clay County ranks #87 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.8%). Clay County, Indiana contains 185 public highway bridges. Roughly 33% are rated “Good,” 56.2% “Fair,” and 10.8% “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
33%
61 of 185 rated 7-9
Fair condition
56.2%
104 of 185 rated 5-6
Poor condition
10.8%
20 of 185 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#87 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 185 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 33% (61)
Fair 56.2% (104)
Poor 10.8% (20)
Clay County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,216 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 485 crossings a day against 1,922 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 184 of 185 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
40% of Clay County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
74 of the 185 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 33% 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 76.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US 40 over ABANDONED RR, built 1926, carries 7,076 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 9,216 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Clay County's bridges were built
185 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 7
1900–1909
7 bridges
- 1910s 6
1910–1919
6 bridges
- 1920s 8
1920–1929
8 bridges
- 1930s 14
1930–1939
14 bridges
- 1940s 6
1940–1949
6 bridges
- 1950s 6
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
23 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
19 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
18 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
36 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
23 bridges
- 2010s 11
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 8
2020–2029
8 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the Indiana average (1978).
How Clay County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Clay County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.8% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 9 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jay County | 191 | 45% | 48.7% | 6.3% | 1982 |
| Jasper County | 189 | 34.9% | 64.6% | 0.5% | 1982 |
| Huntington County | 187 | 36.9% | 59.4% | 3.7% | 1978 |
| Cass County | 185 | 48.6% | 49.7% | 1.6% | 1988 |
| Clay County (this page) | 185 | 33% | 56.2% | 10.8% | 1974 |
| Marshall County | 183 | 55.2% | 41.5% | 3.3% | 1984 |
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 Clay 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 Clay County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (185 bridges here).
- Chambers County, AL · 185 bridges
- Maui County, HI · 185 bridges
- Lawrence County, IL · 185 bridges
- Saline County, IL · 185 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1974 here).
- Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
- Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
- Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
- Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (104)
CR 400E
FairOver: Trib to McIntyre Creek
00.10 S of CR 300 N, Clay, IN
Built 1997 Load: 80.4 t ADT: 150
SR 157
FairOver: BRANCH CONNELEY DITCH
01.16 S SR 59, Clay, IN
Built 1984 Load: 82.9 t ADT: 671
CR 200W
FairOver: Little Creek
00.10 N of CR 1350 N, Clay, IN
Built 1935 Load: 90.7 t ADT: 119
CR 1000S
FairOver: Lafferty Ditch
00.50 W of CR 250 W, Clay, IN
Built 1991 Load: 90.7 t ADT: 119
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.