Total bridges
191
Public highway bridges in Jay County
County profile · official public datasets
Jay County, IN
191 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 45% rated Good, 48.7% Fair, 6.3% Poor.
- 191
- Public bridges
- 45%
- Good condition
- 6.3%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Jay County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 64th
- of 92 on Poor share
- 6.3%
- Poor-condition share
- 191
- public highway bridges
- 1982
- 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.
Jay County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jay County ranks #64 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.3%). Jay County, Indiana contains 191 public highway bridges. Roughly 45% are rated “Good,” 48.7% “Fair,” and 6.3% “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
45%
86 of 191 rated 7-9
Fair condition
48.7%
93 of 191 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6.3%
12 of 191 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#64 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 191 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 45% (86)
Fair 48.7% (93)
Poor 6.3% (12)
Jay County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,138 vehicle crossings a day
That is 7.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 762 crossings a day against 638 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 191 of 191 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
34% of Jay County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
65 of the 191 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 45% 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 62.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SR 67 over SALAMONIE RIVER, built 1987, carries 5,744 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 9,138 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Jay County's bridges were built
191 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s 7
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
24 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
41 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
44 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
47 bridges
- 2000s 18
2000–2009
18 bridges
- 2010s 3
2010–2019
3 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 47 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Indiana average (1978).
How Jay County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Jay County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.3% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adams County | 194 | 45.4% | 53.6% | 1% | 1983 |
| Howard County | 194 | 40.2% | 55.2% | 4.6% | 1976 |
| Wabash County | 192 | 28.1% | 65.6% | 6.3% | 1976 |
| Ripley County | 191 | 36.1% | 60.7% | 3.1% | 1972 |
| Jay County (this page) | 191 | 45% | 48.7% | 6.3% | 1982 |
| Jasper County | 189 | 34.9% | 64.6% | 0.5% | 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 Jay 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 Jay County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (191 bridges here).
- Atchison County, MO · 191 bridges
- Pawnee County, NE · 191 bridges
- Webster County, NE · 191 bridges
- Milam County, TX · 191 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1982 here).
- Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
- Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
- Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
- Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (12)
CR 300E
PoorOver: LITTLE SALAMONIE RIVER
0.4 MILES NORTH OF CR 400, Jay, IN
Built 1982 Load: 7.2 t ADT: 74
CR 1100W
PoorOver: MUD CREEK
0.4 MILES SOUTH OF SR 26, Jay, IN
Built 1984 Load: 11.8 t ADT: 138
CR 400N
PoorOver: WILSON CREEK
0.5 MILES EAST OF CR 700, Jay, IN
Built 1984 Load: 17.0 t ADT: 138
CR 350W
PoorOver: WEHRLY DITCH
0.9 MILES NORTH OF SR 26, Jay, IN
Built 1984 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 74
CR 700W
PoorOver: BROOKS CREEK
0.6 MILES SOUTH OF CR 200, Jay, IN
Built 1985 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 138
CR 300E
PoorOver: LITTLE SALAMONIE RIVER
0.6 MILES NORTH OF CR 400, Jay, IN
Built 1982 Load: 19.2 t ADT: 138
CR 800S
PoorOver: LINDLEY JORDAN CREEK
0.9 MILES WEST OF STATE L, Jay, IN
Built 1978 Load: 21.9 t ADT: 127
CR 200N
PoorOver: MUD CREEK
0.2 MILES WEST OF SR 1, Jay, IN
Built 1984 Load: 22.5 t ADT: 121
BLUFFTON ROAD
PoorOver: GOSS-SWITZER DITCH
0.1 MILES WEST OF CR 650, Jay, IN
Built 1984 Load: 24.1 t ADT: 181
SR 26
PoorOver: BOLEN DITCH
01.84 E US 27, Jay, IN
Built 1946 Load: 26.2 t ADT: 2,127
CR 400S
PoorOver: SIMPSON CREEK
0.1 MILES EAST OF CR 850, Jay, IN
Built 1971 Load: 27.1 t ADT: 138
SR 67
PoorOver: SALAMONIE RIVER
00.99 S SR 26, Jay, IN
Built 1987 Load: 35.6 t ADT: 5,744
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.