County profile · official public datasets

Starke County, IN

86 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 53.5% rated Good, 40.7% Fair, 5.8% Poor.

86
Public bridges: 53.5%
Good condition: 5.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

59th
of 92 on Poor share: 5.8%
Poor-condition share: 86
public highway bridges: 1987
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.

Starke County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Starke County ranks #59 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.8%). Starke County, Indiana contains 86 public highway bridges. Roughly 53.5% are rated “Good,” 40.7% “Fair,” and 5.8% “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 Starke County

Good condition

53.5%

46 of 86 rated 7-9

Fair condition

40.7%

35 of 86 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.8%

5 of 86 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#59 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 86 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

53.5% (46)

Fair

40.7% (35)

Poor

5.8% (5)

Starke County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,898 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,180 crossings a day against 1,887 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 86 of 86 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.6% of Starke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

28 of the 86 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 53.5% 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 66.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 8 over YELLOW RIVER, built 1964, carries 3,936 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 5,898 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

1
1950s

17
1960s

7
1970s

4
1980s

7
1990s

12
2000s

14
2010s

20
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 20 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1987, 9 years newer than the Indiana average of 1978.

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Starke County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.8% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1987 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Starke County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Fayette County	100	33%	57%	10%	1981
LaGrange County	100	45%	54%	1%	1974
Noble County	89	41.6%	49.4%	9%	1973
Starke County (this page)	86	53.5%	40.7%	5.8%	1987
Fulton County	85	36.5%	58.8%	4.7%	1977
Blackford County	73	31.5%	63%	5.5%	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 Starke 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 Starke County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (86 bridges here).

Catoosa County, GA · 86 bridges
Mason County, IL · 86 bridges
Columbia County, WA · 86 bridges
Modoc County, CA · 87 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1987 here).

St. Louis County, MO · avg 1987 · 912 bridges
Ellis County, TX · avg 1987 · 691 bridges
St. Louis County, MN · avg 1987 · 663 bridges
Palm Beach County, FL · avg 1987 · 610 bridges

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

All 86 Good 46 Fair 35 Poor 5

All bridges (86)

Sort:

Starke County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Starke County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,898 vehicle crossings a day

32.6% of Starke County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 66.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Starke 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 (86)

CR 850E

CR 500S

RANGE ROAD

CR 800E

CR 1000E

CR 50E

CR 450 SOUTH

CR 900S

CR 100E

CR 700N

CR 250 WEST

CR 625S

CR 1150E

CR 100E

US 30 EB

US 30 WB

US 30 WB

US 30 EB

CR 1100E

CR 1200 EAST

SR 39

CR 200E

PARK ROAD 10 MI RD

PARK ROAD 10 MI RD

CR 600E

SR 10

CR 25 NORTH

US 35

TOTO ROAD

SR 23

CR 800 SOUTH

CR 300E

CR 800E

CR 700 SOUTH

CR 600E

SR 8

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