County profile · official public datasets

Noble County, IN

89 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.6% rated Good, 49.4% Fair, 9% Poor.

89
Public bridges: 41.6%
Good condition: 9%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Noble County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

79th
of 92 on Poor share: 9%
Poor-condition share: 89
public highway bridges: 1973
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.

Noble County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Noble County ranks #79 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9%). Noble County, Indiana contains 89 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.6% are rated “Good,” 49.4% “Fair,” and 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.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Noble County

Good condition

41.6%

37 of 89 rated 7-9

Fair condition

49.4%

44 of 89 rated 5-6

Poor condition

8 of 89 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#79 of 92

Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 89 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41.6% (37)

Fair

49.4% (44)

Poor

9% (8)

Noble County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,920 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 703 crossings a day against 3,033 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 88 of 89 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

49.4% of Noble County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

44 of the 89 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 41.6% 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 37.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CR 600N over GRETZINGER DITCH, built 1920, carries 1,840 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,920 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

2
1920s

15
1930s

2
1940s

2
1950s

2
1960s

10
1970s

11
1980s

9
1990s

14
2000s

8
2010s

10
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1920s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 95 to 104 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1973, 5 years older than the Indiana average of 1978.

How Noble County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Noble County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 6 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Noble County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Pulaski County	102	34.3%	62.7%	2.9%	1976
Fayette County	100	33%	57%	10%	1981
LaGrange County	100	45%	54%	1%	1974
Noble County (this page)	89	41.6%	49.4%	9%	1973
Starke County	86	53.5%	40.7%	5.8%	1987
Fulton County	85	36.5%	58.8%	4.7%	1977

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 Noble 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 Noble County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (89 bridges here).

Menard County, IL · 89 bridges
Wabash County, IL · 89 bridges
Bath County, KY · 89 bridges
Boyd County, KY · 89 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1973 here).

Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 89 Good 37 Fair 44 Poor 8

All bridges (89)

Sort:

Noble County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Noble County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,920 vehicle crossings a day

49.4% of Noble County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 37.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Noble County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

All bridges (89)

MARTIN ST

CR 650W

CR 700W

PARK ROAD

CR 125W

CR 400S

CR 150E

CR 900W

PARK ROAD

US 6

WEST RIVER RD

CR 100S

CR 1050N

CR 1050W

CR 525N

CR 550W

US 33

CR 1000W

SR 8

CR 75E

SR 9

SR 109

CR 500S

CR 900N

CR 450W

LONG LAKE RD

ROCHESTER RD

CR 200N

LONG LAKE RD

CR 100N

CR 1000E

CR 300W

SKINNER LAKE W

OLD SR 3

CR 330N

CR 800N

CR 350W

CR 250W

CR 350W

SR 205

US 33

SR 205

SR 5

SR 9

SR 8

SR 5

US 33

SR 3

CR 600N

ALBION RD

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