County profile · official public datasets

Parke County, IN

200 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25.5% rated Good, 56.5% Fair, 18% Poor.

200
Public bridges: 25.5%
Good condition: 18%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Parke 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.

91st
of 92 on Poor share: 18%
Poor-condition share: 200
public highway bridges: 1953
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.

Parke County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Parke County ranks #91 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 18%). Parke County, Indiana contains 200 public highway bridges. Roughly 25.5% are rated “Good,” 56.5% “Fair,” and 18% “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

200

Public highway bridges in Parke County

Good condition

25.5%

51 of 200 rated 7-9

Fair condition

56.5%

113 of 200 rated 5-6

Poor condition

18%

36 of 200 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#91 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 200 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

25.5% (51)

Fair

56.5% (113)

Poor

18% (36)

Parke County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,692 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 18% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 269 crossings a day against 847 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 200 of 200 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

67.5% of Parke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

135 of the 200 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 25.5% 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 9.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CR 900S over SPRING Creek, built 1941, carries 908 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 36-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 9,692 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

7
1900s

17
1910s

15
1920s

22
1930s

17
1940s

9
1950s

10
1960s

30
1970s

17
1980s

17
1990s

21
2000s

9
2010s

7
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 30 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 15% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1953, 25 years older than the Indiana average of 1978.

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Parke County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 18% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1953 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 25 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Parke County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Henry County	206	30.6%	65%	4.4%	1978
Hancock County	201	58.2%	41.8%	0%	1985
Parke County (this page)	200	25.5%	56.5%	18%	1953
Fountain County	197	24.9%	67%	8.1%	1964
Warrick County	197	48.7%	47.7%	3.6%	1981
Adams County	194	45.4%	53.6%	1%	1983

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (200 bridges here).

Escambia County, AL · 200 bridges
Clay County, AR · 200 bridges
Fayette County, KY · 200 bridges
Eaton County, MI · 200 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1953 here).

Kings County, NY · avg 1953 · 242 bridges
Runnels County, TX · avg 1953 · 158 bridges
Jeff Davis County, TX · avg 1953 · 134 bridges
Coke County, TX · avg 1953 · 99 bridges

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

All 200 Good 51 Fair 113 Poor 36

Poor-condition bridges (36)

Sort:

Parke County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Parke County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,692 vehicle crossings a day

67.5% of Parke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 9.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Parke 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

Poor-condition bridges (36)

CLAY PLANT Rd

CR 550E

MIDWAY Rd

CR 720S

CROOKS BRIDGE Rd

STRAWBERRY Rd

CR 620S

CR 40N

NEW DISCOVERY Rd

ROSEDALE Rd

SHORTER Rd

GRAVES Rd

CR 950N

CR 325W

VALLEY Rd

SHORTER Rd

WALKER RAMP RD

CR 350N

FERNDALE Rd

FERNDALE Rd

CR 650N

CR 700E

CR 450W

BRIDGETON Rd

MARSHALL Rd

CR 900S

CR 450N

CR 100S

LEATHERWOOD Rd

FERNDALE Rd

CR 500N

CR 450N

FERNDALE Rd

NEW DISCOVERY Rd

CR 350N

COAL BLUFF Rd

Related