Total bridges
244
Public highway bridges in Spencer County
County profile · official public datasets
Spencer County, IN
244 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.8% rated Good, 50% Fair, 1.2% Poor.
- 244
- Public bridges
- 48.8%
- Good condition
- 1.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Spencer County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 9%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 1.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 244
- public highway bridges
- 1982
- 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.
Spencer County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Spencer County ranks #8 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.2%). Spencer County, Indiana contains 244 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.8% are rated “Good,” 50% “Fair,” and 1.2% “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.
Good condition
48.8%
119 of 244 rated 7-9
Fair condition
50%
122 of 244 rated 5-6
Poor condition
1.2%
3 of 244 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#8 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 244 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 48.8% (119)
Fair 50% (122)
Poor 1.2% (3)
Spencer County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,699 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.6% 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 900 crossings a day against 2,069 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 244 of 244 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
24.2% of Spencer County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
59 of the 244 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 48.8% 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 94.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
SR 162 over BRANCH CROOKED CREEK, built 1987, carries 2,549 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 2,699 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Spencer County's bridges were built
244 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- pre-1900 4
Built before 1900
4 bridges
- 1900s 4
1900–1909
4 bridges
- 1910s 4
1910–1919
4 bridges
- 1920s 7
1920–1929
7 bridges
- 1930s 9
1930–1939
9 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s 6
1950–1959
6 bridges
- 1960s 9
1960–1969
9 bridges
- 1970s 25
1970–1979
25 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
65 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
49 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
37 bridges
- 2010s 18
2010–2019
18 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 65 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Indiana average (1978).
How Spencer County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Spencer County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery County | 252 | 51.2% | 46.4% | 2.4% | 1983 |
| Morgan County | 252 | 50.4% | 45.6% | 4% | 1986 |
| Shelby County | 247 | 32.4% | 60.3% | 7.3% | 1974 |
| Spencer County (this page) | 244 | 48.8% | 50% | 1.2% | 1982 |
| Greene County | 239 | 43.9% | 46.9% | 9.2% | 1982 |
| Monroe County | 232 | 62.1% | 35.8% | 2.2% | 1988 |
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 Spencer 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 Spencer County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (244 bridges here).
- Norton County, KS · 244 bridges
- Osborne County, KS · 244 bridges
- Allegan County, MI · 244 bridges
- Seward County, NE · 244 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1982 here).
- Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
- Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
- Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
- Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
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.