County profile · official public datasets

Perry County, IN

151 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.1% rated Good, 57% Fair, 2% Poor.

151
Public bridges: 41.1%
Good condition: 2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Perry County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 16%
lowest Poor share in state: 2%
Poor-condition share: 151
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Perry County ranks #15 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2%). Perry County, Indiana contains 151 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.1% are rated “Good,” 57% “Fair,” and 2% “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

151

Public highway bridges in Perry County

Good condition

41.1%

62 of 151 rated 7-9

Fair condition

57%

86 of 151 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3 of 151 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#15 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 151 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41.1% (62)

Fair

57% (86)

Poor

2% (3)

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 892 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 297 crossings a day against 1,215 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 151 of 151 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

52.3% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

79 of the 151 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 41.1% 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 72.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 66 over DEER CREEK, built 1970, carries 647 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 892 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

4
1930s

2
1940s

7
1950s

13
1960s

23
1970s

36
1980s

19
1990s

24
2000s

11
2010s

8
2020s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 36 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Indiana average (1978).

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Perry County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Perry County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jefferson County	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 (this page)	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 Perry 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 Perry County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (151 bridges here).

Randolph County, AR · 151 bridges
Pasco County, FL · 151 bridges
St. Lucie County, FL · 151 bridges
Hall County, GA · 151 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges
Buncombe County, NC · avg 1978 · 555 bridges

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

All 151 Good 62 Fair 86 Poor 3

All bridges (151)

Sort:

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 892 vehicle crossings a day

52.3% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 72.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Perry 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 (151)

CR 10

CR 71

CR 33

CR 119

CR 19

CR 5

CR 198

CR 133

CR 192

CR 121

CR 164

CR 16

CR 126

CR 34

CR 8

CR 8

CR 37

CR 18

CR 10

CR 31

CR 28

CR 92

CR 158

CR 164

CR 353

CR 7

CR 101

CR 189

SR 62

I-64 EB

I-64 WB

CR 211

CR 78

CR 245

SR 237

CR 70

SR 545

CR 247

SR 145

CR 40

Washington/14th St

CR 41

CR 15

LINCOLN AVENUE

CR 278

CR 277

CR 37

CR 37

CR 262

CR 79

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