County profile · official public datasets

Tipton County, IN

113 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.5% rated Good, 55.8% Fair, 1.8% Poor.

113
Public bridges: 42.5%
Good condition: 1.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Tipton County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 13%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.8%
Poor-condition share: 113
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Tipton County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Tipton County ranks #12 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.8%). Tipton County, Indiana contains 113 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.5% are rated “Good,” 55.8% “Fair,” and 1.8% “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

113

Public highway bridges in Tipton County

Good condition

42.5%

48 of 113 rated 7-9

Fair condition

55.8%

63 of 113 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.8%

2 of 113 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#12 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 113 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

42.5% (48)

Fair

55.8% (63)

Poor

1.8% (2)

Tipton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,627 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 814 crossings a day against 1,289 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 113 of 113 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.7% of Tipton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

37 of the 113 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 42.5% 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 92.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 213 over MUD CREEK, built 1958, carries 1,502 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,627 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1940s

1
1950s

15
1960s

14
1970s

19
1980s

20
1990s

10
2000s

15
2010s

17

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 20 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 5 years newer than the Indiana average of 1978.

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Tipton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.8% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 9 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Tipton County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Crawford County	123	34.1%	48.8%	17.1%	1964
Scott County	118	47.5%	46.6%	5.9%	1982
Whitley County	115	41.7%	58.3%	0%	1984
Brown County	114	20.2%	63.2%	16.7%	1964
Tipton County (this page)	113	42.5%	55.8%	1.8%	1983
Martin County	104	40.4%	51.9%	7.7%	1977

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (113 bridges here).

Lake County, FL · 113 bridges
Chattooga County, GA · 113 bridges
Jersey County, IL · 113 bridges
Powell County, MT · 113 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 113 Good 48 Fair 63 Poor 2

Good-condition bridges (48)

Sort:

Tipton County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Tipton County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,627 vehicle crossings a day

32.7% of Tipton County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 92.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Tipton 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 (48)

CR 100N

CR 500W

CR 250W

CR 200 EAST

SR 931 NB RAMP

US 31

CR 600N

CR 200E

CR 400S

CR 650N

CR 200 EAST

CR 1150W

CR 500W

CR 1050W

CR 300N

CR 100S

CR 600 N

CR 650N

CR 500E

CR 550W

CR 725W

CR 400W

CR 600N

JEFFERSON STREET

CR 600S

CR 500S

DOGGET STREET

SR 28

CR 300S

CR 300S

CR 75S

CR 750W

SHERMAN STREET

CR 100E

CR 1100W

CR 400W

CR 400E

CR 700W

CR 600 SOUTH

CR 500N

CR 400W

CR 400N

CR 200N

CR 50N

SR 19

CR 450S

CR 725W

CR 250W

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