County profile · official public datasets

Fayette County, IA

362 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 35.1% rated Good, 40.3% Fair, 24.6% Poor.

362
Public bridges: 35.1%
Good condition: 24.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Fayette County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

66th
of 99 on Poor share: 24.6%
Poor-condition share: 362
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

Fayette County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Fayette County ranks #66 of 99 Iowa counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 24.6%). Fayette County, Iowa contains 362 public highway bridges. Roughly 35.1% are rated “Good,” 40.3% “Fair,” and 24.6% “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

362

Public highway bridges in Fayette County

Good condition

35.1%

127 of 362 rated 7-9

Fair condition

40.3%

146 of 362 rated 5-6

Poor condition

24.6%

89 of 362 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#66 of 99

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

Condition distribution

Share of 362 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

35.1% (127)

Fair

40.3% (146)

Poor

24.6% (89)

Fayette County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,163 vehicle crossings a day

That is 11.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 24.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 182 crossings a day against 379 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 359 of 362 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

45.6% of Fayette County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

165 of the 362 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 35.1% 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 16.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

W CHARLES ST over DRY RUN CREEK, built 1905, carries 2,673 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 89-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 16,163 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

7
1910s

19
1920s

29
1930s

3
1940s

10
1950s

48
1960s

35
1970s

31
1980s

50
1990s

55
2000s

34
2010s

22
2020s

19

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 55 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 15.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1974, 5 years older than the Iowa average of 1979.

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

The 5 Iowa counties nearest Fayette County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 24.6% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1983 is 9 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Fayette County and the 5 Iowa counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jasper County	382	38.5%	32.5%	29.1%	1977
Benton County	374	34.2%	42.8%	23%	1984
Clinton County	372	66.7%	30.4%	3%	1986
Johnson County	372	39.5%	50.3%	10.2%	1979
Fayette County (this page)	362	35.1%	40.3%	24.6%	1974
Dubuque County	346	50.6%	40.8%	8.7%	1989

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IA (362 bridges here).

Gibson County, IN · 362 bridges
Muskingum County, OH · 363 bridges
Lackawanna County, PA · 363 bridges
Grays Harbor County, WA · 363 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IA (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges

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

All 362 Good 127 Fair 146 Poor 89

All bridges (362)

Sort:

Fayette County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Fayette County's Poor-condition bridges carry 16,163 vehicle crossings a day

45.6% of Fayette County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 16.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Fayette 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

All bridges (362)

W AVE

170TH ST

GREAT RIVER RD.

100TH ST

GREAT RIVER RD.

IA 150

IA 3 & 150

IA 150

IA 150

GRAIN RD.

NEW DONNAN RD

IA 150

TOWN RD

D AVE.

G AVE.

K AVE.

50TH ST.

40TH ST.

30TH ST.

25TH ST.

R AVE.

70TH ST

Y AVE

40TH ST

30TH ST

W AVE

20TH ST

80TH ST.

D AVE.

130TH ST.

110TH ST.

J AVE

Q AVE.

120TH ST

T AVE

110TH ST

78TH ST

78TH ST

V AVE

FOX RD.

BEAR RD.

W14

180TH ST

180TH ST

180TH ST

S AVE

X AVE

180TH ST

160TH ST

140TH ST

Related