County profile · official public datasets

Crawford County, IA

301 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42.5% rated Good, 48.5% Fair, 9% Poor.

301
Public bridges: 42.5%
Good condition: 9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Crawford County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 14%
lowest Poor share in state: 9%
Poor-condition share: 301
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.

Crawford County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Crawford County ranks #14 of 99 Iowa counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9%). Crawford County, Iowa contains 301 public highway bridges. Roughly 42.5% are rated “Good,” 48.5% “Fair,” and 9% “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

301

Public highway bridges in Crawford County

Good condition

42.5%

128 of 301 rated 7-9

Fair condition

48.5%

146 of 301 rated 5-6

Poor condition

27 of 301 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#14 of 99

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

Condition distribution

Share of 301 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

42.5% (128)

Fair

48.5% (146)

Poor

9% (27)

Crawford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,530 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 168 crossings a day against 233 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 301 of 301 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

42.2% of Crawford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

127 of the 301 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 40.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

DONNA REED DR over OVER UP RR, built 1935, carries 1,846 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 27-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,530 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

4
1910s

2
1920s

2
1930s

4
1940s

13
1950s

41
1960s

45
1970s

36
1980s

21
1990s

35
2000s

48
2010s

37
2020s

13

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 48 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 15.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Iowa average (1979).

How Crawford County compares with Iowa's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Iowa counties nearest Crawford County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.

Showing the 5 closest of 98 Iowa counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Crawford County and the 5 Iowa counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Adair County	306	46.7%	39.9%	13.4%	1983
Marshall County	304	32.9%	23.7%	43.4%	1970
Chickasaw County	302	42.1%	30.1%	27.8%	1986
Cedar County	301	42.9%	37.5%	19.6%	1983
Crawford County (this page)	301	42.5%	48.5%	9%	1982
Story County	296	33.1%	53%	13.9%	1968

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IA (301 bridges here).

Madison County, IN · 301 bridges
Penobscot County, ME · 301 bridges
Harrison County, MS · 301 bridges
Adair County, MO · 301 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IA (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.

All 301 Good 128 Fair 146 Poor 27

Good-condition bridges (128)

Sort:

Crawford County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Crawford County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,530 vehicle crossings a day

42.2% of Crawford County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 40.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Crawford County compares with Iowa'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 (128)

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