County profile · official public datasets

Ripley County, IN

191 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 36.1% rated Good, 60.7% Fair, 3.1% Poor.

191
Public bridges: 36.1%
Good condition: 3.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 30%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.1%
Poor-condition share: 191
public highway bridges: 1972
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.

Ripley County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ripley County ranks #28 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.1%). Ripley County, Indiana contains 191 public highway bridges. Roughly 36.1% are rated “Good,” 60.7% “Fair,” and 3.1% “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

191

Public highway bridges in Ripley County

Good condition

36.1%

69 of 191 rated 7-9

Fair condition

60.7%

116 of 191 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.1%

6 of 191 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#28 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 191 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

36.1% (69)

Fair

60.7% (116)

Poor

3.1% (6)

Ripley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 347 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 69 crossings a day against 2,395 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 190 of 191 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39.3% of Ripley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

75 of the 191 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 36.1% 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 50.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CR 350W over LAUGHERY CREEK, built 1975, carries 175 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 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 347 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

9
1900s

3
1910s

2
1920s

7
1930s

10
1940s

4
1950s

9
1960s

15
1970s

37
1980s

34
1990s

34
2000s

11
2010s

10
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 37 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 6 years older than the Indiana average of 1978.

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Ripley County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.1% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 8 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ripley County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Adams County	194	45.4%	53.6%	1%	1983
Howard County	194	40.2%	55.2%	4.6%	1976
Wabash County	192	28.1%	65.6%	6.3%	1976
Jay County	191	45%	48.7%	6.3%	1982
Ripley County (this page)	191	36.1%	60.7%	3.1%	1972
Jasper County	189	34.9%	64.6%	0.5%	1982

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (191 bridges here).

Atchison County, MO · 191 bridges
Pawnee County, NE · 191 bridges
Webster County, NE · 191 bridges
Milam County, TX · 191 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1972 here).

Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 bridges

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

All 191 Good 69 Fair 116 Poor 6

Good-condition bridges (69)

Sort:

Ripley County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ripley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 347 vehicle crossings a day

39.3% of Ripley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 50.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ripley 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

Good-condition bridges (69)

HOPEWELL RD

SR 101

CR 900W

HOPEWELL RD

SR 350

SHAPED CHARGE ROAD

CR 875S

US 50

EAST PERIMETER ROA

CR 350N

FRIENDSHIP ROAD

CR 250W

CR 800S

SR 229

CR 350W

OLD MICHIGAN RD

CR 850W

CR 250S

CR 1300N

SR 48

SALEM RD

CR 900W

CR 600 E

I-74 EB

I-74 WB

SR 229

SR 129

CR 700N

OLD MICHIGAN ROAD

CR 750N

SR 229

CR 850W

US 421

CAVEHILL ROAD

SPADES ROAD

SR 350

US 421

CR 1500 N

EAST PERIMETER RD

N. ROSFELD RD

SR 46

CR 550N

CR 625E

OLD MICHIGAN ROAD

CR 800S

HAPPY HOLLOW LN

LEGION RD

CR 300S

SR 229

CR 900S

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