Total bridges
454
Public highway bridges in Hamilton County
County profile · official public datasets
Hamilton County, IN
454 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 68.3% rated Good, 29.1% Fair, 2.6% Poor.
- 454
- Public bridges
- 68.3%
- Good condition
- 2.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Hamilton County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 27%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 454
- public highway bridges
- 1996
- 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.
Hamilton County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hamilton County ranks #25 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.6%). Hamilton County, Indiana contains 454 public highway bridges. Roughly 68.3% are rated “Good,” 29.1% “Fair,” and 2.6% “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
68.3%
310 of 454 rated 7-9
Fair condition
29.1%
132 of 454 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.6%
12 of 454 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#25 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 454 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 68.3% (310)
Fair 29.1% (132)
Poor 2.6% (12)
Hamilton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 43,030 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 3,586 crossings a day against 12,679 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 453 of 454 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
16.3% of Hamilton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
74 of the 454 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 68.3% 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 36.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
LITTLE CHICAGO RD over MORSE RESERVOIR, built 1954, carries 15,750 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 43,030 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Hamilton County's bridges were built
454 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 11
1950–1959
11 bridges
- 1960s 36
1960–1969
36 bridges
- 1970s 39
1970–1979
39 bridges
- 1980s 44
1980–1989
44 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
64 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
119 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
109 bridges
- 2020s 22
2020–2029
22 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 119 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1996, 18 years newer than the Indiana average of 1978.
How Hamilton County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Hamilton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.6% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1996 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 16 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake County | 501 | 51.1% | 42.9% | 6% | 1984 |
| Hamilton County (this page) | 454 | 68.3% | 29.1% | 2.6% | 1996 |
| Gibson County | 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 |
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 Hamilton 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 Hamilton County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (454 bridges here).
- Forsyth County, NC · 454 bridges
- Somerset County, PA · 454 bridges
- Woodbury County, IA · 455 bridges
- Hunt County, TX · 456 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1996 here).
- Clark County, NV · avg 1996 · 1,141 bridges
- Hays County, TX · avg 1996 · 272 bridges
- Jackson County, MS · avg 1996 · 268 bridges
- Douglas County, CO · avg 1996 · 263 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (310)
SMOKY ROW ROAD
GoodOver: LITTLE COOL CREEK
00.24 MI W OF RANGELINE R, Hamilton, IN
Built 2023 Load: 59.9 t ADT: 7,840
RAMP & FARM ROAD
GoodOver: RELOCATED LINDLEY DITCH
00.03 S SR 38, Hamilton, IN
Built 2012 Load: 60.3 t ADT: 3,498
SR 32
GoodOver: STONY CREEK
02.12 E SR 38, Hamilton, IN
Built 2023 Load: 61.2 t ADT: 5,930
SPRINGSTONE RD
GoodOver: BEE CAMP CREEK
00.60 N OF 96TH ST, Hamilton, IN
Built 1994 Load: 64.2 t ADT: 610
HAGUE RD
GoodOver: UNNAMED DITCH
00.21 N OF SR 38, Hamilton, IN
Built 2004 Load: 72.9 t ADT: 14,090
WESTFIELD BLVD
GoodOver: BRANCH OF COOL CREEK
00.01 N OF 156TH ST, Hamilton, IN
Built 2002 Load: 78.4 t ADT: 3,800
US 31
GoodOver: MONON GREENWAY
4.88 N I-465, Hamilton, IN
Built 2014 Load: 81.6 t ADT: 55,805
116TH ST EAST
GoodOver: DELIGHT CREEK
00.15 E OF ELLER RD, Hamilton, IN
Built 1999 Load: 91.7 t ADT: 26,130
I-69
GoodOver: THORPE CREEK OVERFLOW
01.48 S SR 13, Hamilton, IN
Built 1966 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 55,765
SIX POINTS RD
GoodOver: SYMONS DITCH
00.30 N OF 256TH ST, Hamilton, IN
Built 1988 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 580
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.