Total bridges
153
Public highway bridges in Jefferson County
County profile · official public datasets
Jefferson County, IN
153 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.8% rated Good, 54.2% Fair, 3.9% Poor.
- 153
- Public bridges
- 41.8%
- Good condition
- 3.9%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Jefferson County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 38%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 3.9%
- Poor-condition share
- 153
- public highway bridges
- 1977
- 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.
Jefferson County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jefferson County ranks #35 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Jefferson County, Indiana contains 153 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.8% are rated “Good,” 54.2% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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
41.8%
64 of 153 rated 7-9
Fair condition
54.2%
83 of 153 rated 5-6
Poor condition
3.9%
6 of 153 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#35 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 153 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 41.8% (64)
Fair 54.2% (83)
Poor 3.9% (6)
Jefferson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 7,242 vehicle crossings a day
That is 4.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,207 crossings a day against 448 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 153 of 153 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
34.6% of Jefferson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
53 of the 153 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 41.8% 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 79.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SR 7 over CLIFTY CREEK, built 1925, carries 5,739 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 7,242 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Jefferson County's bridges were built
153 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 5
Built before 1900
5 bridges
- 1900s 3
1900–1909
3 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 6
1920–1929
6 bridges
- 1930s 8
1930–1939
8 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
15 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
29 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
26 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
22 bridges
- 2000s 10
2000–2009
10 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
17 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 29 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Indiana average (1978).
How Jefferson County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Jefferson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson County (this page) | 153 | 41.8% | 54.2% | 3.9% | 1977 |
| Kosciusko County | 152 | 38.2% | 55.3% | 6.6% | 1975 |
| Benton County | 151 | 45.7% | 52.3% | 2% | 1986 |
| Perry County | 151 | 41.1% | 57% | 2% | 1978 |
| Owen County | 150 | 38.7% | 51.3% | 10% | 1978 |
| DeKalb County | 149 | 40.9% | 59.1% | 0% | 1980 |
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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (153 bridges here).
- Sussex County, DE · 153 bridges
- Harrison County, KY · 153 bridges
- Roger Mills County, OK · 153 bridges
- Perry County, TN · 153 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1977 here).
- San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
- King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
- Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
- Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (64)
BLACK RD
GoodOver: BIG CLIFTY CREEK
00.08 S of CLIFTY DR, Jefferson, IN
Built 1989 Load: 46.7 t ADT: 100
THOMPSON RD
GoodOver: THOMPSON BRANCH
00.22 N of INTERSTATE BLO, Jefferson, IN
Built 1986 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 275
BROOK/MANVILLE RD
GoodOver: MOLLYS RUN
00.85 N OF GREENBRIER RD, Jefferson, IN
Built 2010 Load: 47.3 t ADT: 100
EAGLE HOLLOW RD
GoodOver: EAGLE HOLLOW
00.83 N OF SR 56, Jefferson, IN
Built 2019 Load: 48.8 t ADT: 100
BARBERSVILLE RD
GoodOver: CANAAN BR INDIAN-KENTUCK
00.31 S BARBERSVILLE CR, Jefferson, IN
Built 1973 Load: 49.8 t ADT: 100
POLK RD
GoodOver: UNT OF HOG CRREK
00.17 W OF RODGERS RD, Jefferson, IN
Built 2021 Load: 50.9 t ADT: 100
POLK RD
GoodOver: LITTLE CREEK
00.35 E of ROGERS RD, Jefferson, IN
Built 2010 Load: 51.3 t ADT: 100
BLAKE RD
GoodOver: LEWIS CREEK
00.38 E of SR 3, Jefferson, IN
Built 2011 Load: 53.8 t ADT: 300
SR 62
GoodOver: SALEM BRANCH
01.46 W SR 129, Jefferson, IN
Built 1968 Load: 55.4 t ADT: 717
DOE RUN RD
GoodOver: BRANCH OF DRY FORK CREEK
00.08 S of COMLEY HILL RD, Jefferson, IN
Built 1983 Load: 59.1 t ADT: 300
WOLF RUN RD
GoodOver: W FK INDIAN-KENTUCK CR
00.02 W CHINA MANVILLE R, Jefferson, IN
Built 1976 Load: 71.2 t ADT: 225
CR 700S ARBUCKLE
GoodOver: W FK OF FOURTEEN MILE CR
00.57 W of CR 850 W, Jefferson, IN
Built 2005 Load: 75.1 t ADT: 100
CR N 1525 W
GoodOver: TRIB. TO QUICK CREEK
1.25 N of W HENRY ROAD, Jefferson, IN
Built 2021 Load: 78.4 t ADT: 100
CR 1250W
GoodOver: LEWIS CREEK
00.51 N OF HENRY RD, Jefferson, IN
Built 2017 Load: 78.7 t ADT: 100
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.