Total bridges
165
Public highway bridges in Lawrence County
County profile · official public datasets
Lawrence County, IN
165 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32.1% rated Good, 58.2% Fair, 9.7% Poor.
- 165
- Public bridges
- 32.1%
- Good condition
- 9.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Lawrence County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 81st
- of 92 on Poor share
- 9.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 165
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- 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.
Lawrence County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lawrence County ranks #81 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.7%). Lawrence County, Indiana contains 165 public highway bridges. Roughly 32.1% are rated “Good,” 58.2% “Fair,” and 9.7% “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
32.1%
53 of 165 rated 7-9
Fair condition
58.2%
96 of 165 rated 5-6
Poor condition
9.7%
16 of 165 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#81 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 165 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 32.1% (53)
Fair 58.2% (96)
Poor 9.7% (16)
Lawrence County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,818 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 239 crossings a day against 1,867 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 165 of 165 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
35.2% of Lawrence County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
58 of the 165 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 32.1% 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 17.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SR 158 over SILVERVILLE CREEK, built 1938, carries 669 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 16-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 3,818 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Lawrence County's bridges were built
165 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 1
Built before 1900
1 bridges
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s 7
1930–1939
7 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 3
1950–1959
3 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
19 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
26 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
27 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
28 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
21 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
16 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 28 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the Indiana average (1978).
How Lawrence County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Lawrence County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.7% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 8 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newton County | 172 | 41.9% | 56.4% | 1.7% | 1981 |
| Miami County | 171 | 34.5% | 57.9% | 7.6% | 1966 |
| Lawrence County (this page) | 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 | 159 | 34% | 58.5% | 7.5% | 1972 |
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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (165 bridges here).
- Cleburne County, AL · 165 bridges
- Randolph County, AL · 165 bridges
- Plumas County, CA · 165 bridges
- Leon County, FL · 165 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (53)
STOVE ROAD
GoodOver: S FORK LEATHERWOOD CR
00.22 N OF US 50, Lawrence, IN
Built 2018 Load: 56.4 t ADT: 137
HURON WILLIAMS RD
GoodOver: HOOPER CREEK
02.54 N OF US 50, Lawrence, IN
Built 2021 Load: 77.4 t ADT: 122
SR 58
GoodOver: UNT INDIAN CREEK
4.26 E SR 45, Lawrence, IN
Built 2017 Load: 78.7 t ADT: 2,694
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.