Total bridges
172
Public highway bridges in Newton County
County profile · official public datasets
Newton County, IN
172 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.9% rated Good, 56.4% Fair, 1.7% Poor.
- 172
- Public bridges
- 41.9%
- Good condition
- 1.7%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Newton County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 12%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.7%
- Poor-condition share
- 172
- 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.
Newton County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Newton County ranks #11 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.7%). Newton County, Indiana contains 172 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.9% are rated “Good,” 56.4% “Fair,” and 1.7% “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
41.9%
72 of 172 rated 7-9
Fair condition
56.4%
97 of 172 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.7%
3 of 172 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#11 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 172 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 41.9% (72)
Fair 56.4% (97)
Poor 1.7% (3)
Newton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 493 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 247 crossings a day against 2,596 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 171 of 172 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
37.2% of Newton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
64 of the 172 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 41.9% 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 71% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
STATELINE ROAD over RINER-HOUSEWORTH DITCH, built 1968, carries 350 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 493 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Newton County's bridges were built
172 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 2
1900–1909
2 bridges
- 1910s 3
1910–1919
3 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 7
1930–1939
7 bridges
- 1950s 13
1950–1959
13 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
32 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
16 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
16 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
39 bridges
- 2000s 13
2000–2009
13 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
24 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 39 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.7% 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 Newton County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Newton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 6 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington County | 174 | 44.8% | 52.9% | 2.3% | 1976 |
| Pike County | 172 | 50.6% | 39% | 10.5% | 1978 |
| Newton County (this page) | 172 | 41.9% | 56.4% | 1.7% | 1981 |
| Miami County | 171 | 34.5% | 57.9% | 7.6% | 1966 |
| Lawrence County | 165 | 32.1% | 58.2% | 9.7% | 1981 |
| Jennings County | 163 | 39.9% | 50.3% | 9.8% | 1973 |
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 Newton 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 Newton County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (172 bridges here).
- Colbert County, AL · 172 bridges
- Marshall County, AL · 172 bridges
- Moultrie County, IL · 172 bridges
- Houston County, MN · 172 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.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
CR 1100 S
PoorOver: HUNTER DITCH
0.1 MI E CR 250 E, Newton, IN
Built 1930 Load: 3.9 t ADT: 143
STATELINE ROAD
PoorOver: RINER-HOUSEWORTH DITCH
0.242 MI S COUNTY LINE, Newton, IN
Built 1968 Load: 13.1 t ADT: 350
ABANDONED CR 500 W
PoorOver: MARSH AREA
00.00 WILLOW SLOUGH WILD., Newton, IN
Built 1900 Load: 22.7 t
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.