Total bridges
135
Public highway bridges in Steuben County
County profile · official public datasets
Steuben County, IN
135 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 48.9% rated Good, 48.9% Fair, 2.2% Poor.
- 135
- Public bridges
- 48.9%
- Good condition
- 2.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Steuben County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 18%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 135
- public highway bridges
- 1970
- 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.
Steuben County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Steuben County ranks #17 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.2%). Steuben County, Indiana contains 135 public highway bridges. Roughly 48.9% are rated “Good,” 48.9% “Fair,” and 2.2% “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
48.9%
66 of 135 rated 7-9
Fair condition
48.9%
66 of 135 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.2%
3 of 135 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#17 of 92
Among Indiana counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 135 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 48.9% (66)
Fair 48.9% (66)
Poor 2.2% (3)
Steuben County's Poor-condition bridges carry 838 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 279 crossings a day against 4,511 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 135 of 135 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
71.1% of Steuben County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
96 of the 135 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 48.9% 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 51.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
CR 675W over CROOKED CREEK, built 1967, carries 431 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 838 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Steuben County's bridges were built
135 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
43 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
39 bridges
- 1970s 16
1970–1979
16 bridges
- 1980s 14
1980–1989
14 bridges
- 1990s 7
1990–1999
7 bridges
- 2000s 4
2000–2009
4 bridges
- 2010s 7
2010–2019
7 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 43 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 31.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1970, 8 years older than the Indiana average of 1978.
How Steuben County compares with Indiana's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Indiana counties nearest Steuben County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1970 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 91 Indiana counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dearborn County | 145 | 35.9% | 51.7% | 12.4% | 1974 |
| Orange County | 137 | 36.5% | 53.3% | 10.2% | 1971 |
| Warren County | 135 | 29.6% | 63.7% | 6.7% | 1970 |
| Steuben County (this page) | 135 | 48.9% | 48.9% | 2.2% | 1970 |
| Harrison County | 127 | 37.8% | 59.8% | 2.4% | 1982 |
| Vermillion County | 127 | 26.8% | 65.4% | 7.9% | 1973 |
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 Steuben 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 Steuben County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside IN (135 bridges here).
- Nevada County, CA · 135 bridges
- Meriwether County, GA · 135 bridges
- Boone County, IA · 135 bridges
- Palo Alto County, IA · 135 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1970 here).
- Hamilton County, OH · avg 1970 · 783 bridges
- Yavapai County, AZ · avg 1970 · 543 bridges
- Garfield County, OK · avg 1970 · 504 bridges
- San Luis Obispo County, CA · avg 1970 · 401 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (3)
CR 675W
PoorOver: CROOKED CREEK
0.40 MILES S OF SR 120, Steuben, IN
Built 1967 Load: 21.6 t ADT: 431
CR 600W
PoorOver: CROOKED CREEK
0.30 MILES S OF SR 120, Steuben, IN
Built 1965 Load: 29.0 t ADT: 166
OLD SR 1
PoorOver: G POWERS/WEST BRANCH
0.30 MILES N OF EDUNHAM R, Steuben, IN
Built 1967 Load: 35.5 t ADT: 241
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.