County profile · official public datasets

Gibson County, IN

362 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.8% rated Good, 53% Fair, 4.1% Poor.

362
Public bridges: 42.8%
Good condition: 4.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Gibson County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 42%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.1%
Poor-condition share: 362
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Gibson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Gibson County ranks #39 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.1%). Gibson County, Indiana contains 362 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.8% are rated “Good,” 53% “Fair,” and 4.1% “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

362

Public highway bridges in Gibson County

Good condition

42.8%

155 of 362 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53%

192 of 362 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.1%

15 of 362 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#39 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 362 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

42.8% (155)

Fair

53% (192)

Poor

4.1% (15)

Gibson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,123 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 102 crossings a day against 4,467 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 358 of 362 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

41.2% of Gibson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

149 of the 362 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 42.8% 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 21.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CR 400 N over PATOKA RIVER, built 1979, carries 240 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,123 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

3
1900s

7
1910s

3
1920s

21
1930s

22
1940s

5
1950s

25
1960s

31
1970s

55
1980s

40
1990s

51
2000s

28
2010s

68
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 68 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Indiana average (1978).

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Gibson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.1% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Gibson County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Gibson County (this page)	362	42.8%	53%	4.1%	1978
Hendricks County	355	41.4%	56.3%	2.3%	1982
Wayne County	343	41.1%	54.8%	4.1%	1975
Tippecanoe County	330	55.2%	39.7%	5.2%	1982
Jackson County	321	43.9%	53.6%	2.5%	1981
Madison County	301	44.5%	52.5%	3%	1978

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (362 bridges here).

Fayette County, IA · 362 bridges
Muskingum County, OH · 363 bridges
Lackawanna County, PA · 363 bridges
Grays Harbor County, WA · 363 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges
Buncombe County, NC · avg 1978 · 555 bridges

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

All 362 Good 155 Fair 192 Poor 15

All bridges (362)

Sort:

Gibson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Gibson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,123 vehicle crossings a day

41.2% of Gibson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 21.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Gibson 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 (362)

ARKANSAS ST

CR 900 E

CR 625 N

CR 575 W

CR 1200 E

CR 150 S

CR 50 S

CR 850 E

CR 950 E

CR 275 W

CR 1150 W

STEELMAN CHAPEL RD

CR 850 W

CR 175 E

CR 325 W

CR 200E (OLD SR)

OLD SR 65

CR 500 W

CR 325 W

CR 200 E

OLD STATE RD

CR 825 S

CR 850 S

CR 350 S

CR 450 S

CR 1000 E

CR 850 W

CR 100 N

CR 1200 E

CR 250 S

CR 225 W

CR 550 E

CR 450 N

CR 990 S

CR 525 S

SR 57

CR 850 W

S WEST ST

CR 50 N

CR 50 E

CR 500 W

SR 168

CR 400 S

CR 450 S

CR 250 S

CR 1150 W CR 75 S

CR 600 E

CR 650 E

CR 850 W

CR 200 W

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