County profile · official public datasets

Vanderburgh County, IN

279 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 47.7% rated Good, 48% Fair, 4.3% Poor.

279
Public bridges: 47.7%
Good condition: 4.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Vanderburgh County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 43%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.3%
Poor-condition share: 279
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Vanderburgh County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Vanderburgh County ranks #40 of 92 Indiana counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.3%). Vanderburgh County, Indiana contains 279 public highway bridges. Roughly 47.7% are rated “Good,” 48% “Fair,” and 4.3% “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

279

Public highway bridges in Vanderburgh County

Good condition

47.7%

133 of 279 rated 7-9

Fair condition

48%

134 of 279 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.3%

12 of 279 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#40 of 92

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

Condition distribution

Share of 279 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

47.7% (133)

Fair

48% (134)

Poor

4.3% (12)

Vanderburgh County's Poor-condition bridges carry 99,353 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 8,279 crossings a day against 12,027 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 279 of 279 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

32.3% of Vanderburgh County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

90 of the 279 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 47.7% 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 44.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

SR 62 over EVANSVILLE WESTERN RR, built 1956, carries 44,520 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 12-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 99,353 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1900s

3
1910s

2
1920s

4
1930s

8
1940s

16
1950s

6
1960s

29
1970s

40
1980s

91
1990s

34
2000s

23
2010s

16
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 91 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 32.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1980) matches the Indiana average (1978).

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

The 5 Indiana counties nearest Vanderburgh County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Vanderburgh County and the 5 Indiana counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Grant County	280	38.6%	59.6%	1.8%	1975
Vanderburgh County (this page)	279	47.7%	48%	4.3%	1980
Elkhart County	278	38.1%	55.8%	6.1%	1975
Delaware County	277	31.8%	62.8%	5.4%	1976
Porter County	277	42.6%	52%	5.4%	1970
Bartholomew County	269	53.5%	43.1%	3.3%	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 Vanderburgh 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 Vanderburgh County, both outside Indiana so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IN (279 bridges here).

Limestone County, TX · 280 bridges
Rusk County, TX · 280 bridges
Edgar County, IL · 278 bridges
Whiteside County, IL · 278 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IN (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 279 Good 133 Fair 134 Poor 12

Good-condition bridges (133)

Sort:

Vanderburgh County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Vanderburgh County's Poor-condition bridges carry 99,353 vehicle crossings a day

32.3% of Vanderburgh County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 44.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Vanderburgh 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 (133)

UPPER MT VERNON RD

OAK GROVE RD

SEMINARY RD

OAK HILL RD

KANSAS RD

OLD BOONVILLE HWY

BURKHARDT ROAD

N. ST. JOSEPH AVE.

BOONVL NEW HARMONY

MAASBERG RD

COLUMBIA/DELAWARE

LYNCH RD

ORCHARD RD

US 41

US 41 DR/I-69 EB

BOONVL NEW HARMONY

GREEN RIVER RD

US 41 SBL

GREEN RIVER RD

FIFTH & FULTON AVE

SCHAEFFER RD

GREEN RIVER RD

McCUTCHAN RD

SR 62 EB

SR 62 WB

SR 66

TRAPP RD

CHURCH RD

OAK HILL RD

I-69 EB RAMP 41SB

US 41 SB RAMP

I-69 NB

I-69 SB

SR 66 WBL

I-69 NB

I-69 SB

GREEN RIVER RD

US 41

DARMSTADT RD

STRAWBERRY HILL RD

WALNUT RD

US 41 SB

I-69 NB

SR 66 WBL

I-69 NB

CR 900N

E COUNTY LINE Rd

OLD MT VERNON RD

OLD MT VERNON RD

SR 66

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