Total bridges
159
Public highway bridges in Franklin County
County profile · official public datasets
159 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 34% rated Good, 58.5% Fair, 7.5% Poor.
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Franklin 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.
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.
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Franklin County ranks #71 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.5%). Franklin County, Indiana contains 159 public highway bridges. Roughly 34% are rated “Good,” 58.5% “Fair,” and 7.5% “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
159
Public highway bridges in Franklin County
Good condition
34%
54 of 159 rated 7-9
Fair condition
58.5%
93 of 159 rated 5-6
Poor condition
7.5%
12 of 159 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#71 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Share of 159 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
That is 1.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 243 crossings a day against 1,178 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 158 of 159 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
72 of the 159 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 34% 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.
N HAMBURG RD over BULL FORK SALT CREEK, built 1975, carries 350 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 12-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 2,675 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
159 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
Built before 1900
4 bridges
1900–1909
10 bridges
1910–1919
3 bridges
1920–1929
15 bridges
1930–1939
4 bridges
1940–1949
1 bridges
1950–1959
4 bridges
1960–1969
14 bridges
1970–1979
26 bridges
1980–1989
12 bridges
1990–1999
18 bridges
2000–2009
32 bridges
2010–2019
11 bridges
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 32 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 6 years older than the Indiana average of 1978.
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Franklin County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawrence County | 165 | 32.1% | 58.2% | 9.7% | 1981 |
| Jennings County | 163 | 39.9% | 50.3% | 9.8% | 1973 |
| Carroll County | 161 | 37.3% | 60.2% | 2.5% | 1973 |
| Franklin County (this page) | 159 | 34% | 58.5% | 7.5% | 1972 |
| Wells County | 158 | 39.2% | 55.1% | 5.7% | 1978 |
| Jefferson County | 153 | 41.8% | 54.2% | 3.9% | 1977 |
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 Franklin County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
Two NBI-derived peer sets for Franklin County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Nearest county inventories outside IN (159 bridges here).
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1972 here).
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Over: CLEAR FORK
00.50 MI. E of SHRINE RD, Franklin, IN
Over: S FORK LITTLE SALT CREEK
00.30 W of BUENA VISTA, Franklin, IN
Over: BRANCH of DUCK CREEK
01.00 E of SMOKY HOLLOW R, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE SALT CREEK
00.70 N of SANES CREEK, Franklin, IN
Over: UNNAMED CREEK
00.50 MI. W. of LOOP RD, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE SALT CREEK
00.50 W of US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE DUCK CREEK
0.70 SE of STONE CHURC RD, Franklin, IN
Over: HARVEY BRANCH
00.10 MI. S. WATER ST, Franklin, IN
Over: SALT CREEK
00.20 N of EASTBURG, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE DUCK CREEK
07.15 N SR 101, Franklin, IN
Over: BIG CEDAR CREEK
00.90 E SR 1, Franklin, IN
Over: DRY FK WHITEWATER RIVER
10.24 E US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE CEDAR CREEK
00.50 S of SR 252, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE CEDAR CREEK
00.70 S of SR 252, Franklin, IN
Over: DUCK CREEK
00.30 S of US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE DUCK CREEK
00.60 W of DUCK CREEK RD, Franklin, IN
Over: SOURS RUN of DRY FORK
00.10 N of SPARKS RD, Franklin, IN
Over: BLUE CREEK
00.50 SW of WOLF CREEK RD, Franklin, IN
Over: BROOKVILLE LAKE
01.9 W of SR101, Franklin, IN
Over: BRANCH of BLUE CREEK
00.10 S of BLUE CREEK RD, Franklin, IN
Over: BRANCH of BLUE CREEK
00.10 SE of CANEMILL, Franklin, IN
Over: WHITEWATER RIVER
00.31 S US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: JOHNSON FORK WHITEWATER
00.01 W. JOHNSON FORK RD, Franklin, IN
Over: E FORK WHITEWATER RIVER
00.44 E US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: DUCK CREEK
00.50 W of SMOKY HOLLOW, Franklin, IN
Over: BRANCH BIG CEDAR CREEK
06.19 E US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: HARVEY BRANCH
00.10 MI. W. OF SR-229, Franklin, IN
Over: E FORK WHITEWATER RIVER
00.47 E SR 252, Franklin, IN
Over: HARVEY BRANCH
02.41 N I-74, Franklin, IN
Over: TEMPLETON CREEK
00.00 MOUNDS RECREATION, Franklin, IN
Over: WHITEWATER RIVER
00.30 SW of US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: PIPE CREEK
00.05 MI E OF HICKORY RD, Franklin, IN
Over: SANES CREEK
03.40 N US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: S FORK LITTLE SALT CREEK
01.40 SW US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: JOHNSON FORK WHITEWATER
00.60 S of NEW TRENTON RD, Franklin, IN
Over: DRY FK WHITEWATER RIVER
00.10 W of SR 252, Franklin, IN
Over: BUTLERS RUN
01.65 N SR 101, Franklin, IN
Over: YELLOW BANK CREEK
00.30 S of BUSHY RD, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE SANES CREEK
00.20 E of VANATTA HOLLOW, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE SANES CREEK
00.01 E of VANATTA HOLLOW, Franklin, IN
Over: DEER CREEK
00.01 SW of SNAIL CREEK R, Franklin, IN
Over: SANES CREEK
00.40 N of SANES CREEK, Franklin, IN
Over: UNT WHITEWATER RIVER
05.81 N US 52, Franklin, IN
Over: UNT WHITEWATER RIVER
1.28 N of LONGHOLLOW ROAD, Franklin, IN
Over: WALNUT FK LAUGHERY CREEK
00.10 MI. W. of POCKET RD, Franklin, IN
Over: GOBLES CREEK
00.51 SE of US 1, Franklin, IN
Over: WALNUT FORK
00.20 W of PIPE CAR RD, Franklin, IN
Over: E FORK BLUE CREEK
00.20 NW STURWOLD, Franklin, IN
Over: LITTLE LAUGHERY CREEK
00.20 NE of MID RD, Franklin, IN
Over: WOLF CREEK
00.10 E of WOLF CREEK RD, Franklin, IN
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
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.