Total bridges
301
Public highway bridges in Crawford County
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.
Good condition
42.5%
128 of 301 rated 7-9
Fair condition
48.5%
146 of 301 rated 5-6
Poor condition
9%
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.
When Crawford County's bridges were built
301 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 4
1900–1909
4 bridges
- 1910s 2
1910–1919
2 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s 13
1940–1949
13 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
41 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
45 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
36 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
21 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
35 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
48 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
37 bridges
- 2020s 13
2020–2029
13 bridges
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.
| 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 bridges (301)
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.