County profile · official public datasets

Henry County, IA

173 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41% rated Good, 37.6% Fair, 21.4% Poor.

173
Public bridges
41%
Good condition
21.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

59th
of 99 on Poor share
21.4%
Poor-condition share
173
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.

Henry County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Henry County ranks #59 of 99 Iowa counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 21.4%). Henry County, Iowa contains 173 public highway bridges. Roughly 41% are rated “Good,” 37.6% “Fair,” and 21.4% “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

173

Public highway bridges in Henry County

Good condition

41%

71 of 173 rated 7-9

Fair condition

37.6%

65 of 173 rated 5-6

Poor condition

21.4%

37 of 173 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#59 of 99

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

Condition distribution

Share of 173 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
41% (71)
Fair
37.6% (65)
Poor
21.4% (37)

Henry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,479 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 21.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 256 crossings a day against 1,525 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 173 of 173 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

38.7% of Henry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

67 of the 173 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 41% 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 30.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

235TH STREET over BIG CREEK, built 1957, carries 2,930 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 37-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 9,479 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Henry County's bridges were built

173 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 41 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.7% 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).

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Iowa counties nearest Henry County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 21.4% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Henry County and the 5 Iowa counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Fremont County 179 19.6%
Des Moines County 176 16.5%
Henry County (this page) 173 21.4%
Union County 169 32.5%
Clarke County 168 31.5%
Greene County 168 14.9%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IA (173 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IA (1982 here).

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

All 173 Good 71 Fair 65 Poor 37

Poor-condition bridges (37)

LOCAL

Poor

Over: BRANCH FISH CREEK

070061605, Henry, IA

Built 1974 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 35

LOCAL

Poor

Over: LYNN CREEK

072061801, Henry, IA

Built 1992 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 51

LOCAL

Poor

Over: SMALL

073061202, Henry, IA

Built 1978 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 21

LOCAL

Poor

Over: LYNN CREEK

072070103, Henry, IA

Built 1974 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 30

LOCAL ROAD

Poor

Over: BRANCH BIG CREEK

072052005, Henry, IA

Built 1977 Load: 7.1 t ADT: 11

LOCAL ROAD

Poor

Over: WILLIAMS CREEK

073060505, Henry, IA

Built 1966 Load: 7.3 t ADT: 11

LOCAL

Poor

Over: LOCAL STREAM

073050802, Henry, IA

Built 1968 Load: 8.3 t ADT: 41

LOCAL ROAD

Poor

Over: BRANCH SUGAR CREEK

073071605, Henry, IA

Built 1917 Load: 8.8 t ADT: 21

LOCAL

Poor

Over: EAST FORK CROOKED CREEK

073051104, Henry, IA

Built 1914 Load: 9.2 t ADT: 16

LOCAL

Poor

Over: BRANCH BIG CREEK

072063613, Henry, IA

Built 1985 Load: 10.2 t ADT: 11

LOCAL ROAD

Poor

Over: BRANCH SUGAR CREEK

073072807, Henry, IA

Built 1922 Load: 10.5 t ADT: 26

LOCAL

Poor

Over: CROOKED CREEK

073052602, Henry, IA

Built 1956 Load: 13.4 t ADT: 35

LOCAL ROAD

Poor

Over: LYNN CREEK

072061805, Henry, IA

Built 1975 Load: 13.5 t ADT: 16

FM

Poor

Over: S. BR. BIG CREEK

071050504, Henry, IA

Built 1957 Load: 14.2 t ADT: 60

HICKORY AVE

Poor

Over: LYNN CREEK

072062905, Henry, IA

Built 1988 Load: 14.3 t ADT: 73

LOCAL

Poor

Over: DICKEY CREEK

071063602, Henry, IA

Built 1956 Load: 16.1 t ADT: 73

LOCAL

Poor

Over: SUGAR CREEK

073072802, Henry, IA

Built 1976 Load: 16.1 t ADT: 41

FM

Poor

Over: MUD CREEK

070051106, Henry, IA

Built 1972 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 70

LOCAL

Poor

Over: BRANCH BRUSH CREEK

071053204, Henry, IA

Built 1951 Load: 16.6 t ADT: 51

X030 EXT(GEODE)

Poor

Over: CEDAR CREEK

070052506, Henry, IA

Built 1935 Load: 17.0 t ADT: 70

LOCAL ROAD

Poor

Over: SPEARMAN BRANCH

071062603, Henry, IA

Built 1958 Load: 17.0 t ADT: 73

FM

Poor

Over: SUGAR CREEK

073072803, Henry, IA

Built 1959 Load: 17.1 t ADT: 100

LOCAL

Poor

Over: S BR BIG CREEK

071050205, Henry, IA

Built 1996 Load: 17.4 t ADT: 5

LOCAL

Poor

Over: MUD CREEK

070051503, Henry, IA

Built 1959 Load: 17.6 t ADT: 73

FM

Poor

Over: MUD CREEK

070073102, Henry, IA

Built 1958 Load: 17.7 t ADT: 60

FM

Poor

Over: CEDAR CREEK

070070903, Henry, IA

Built 1952 Load: 17.8 t ADT: 60

235TH STREET

Poor

Over: BIG CREEK

071071227, Henry, IA

Built 1957 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 2,930

LOCAL

Poor

Over: LOCAL STREAM

073050702, Henry, IA

Built 1957 Load: 20.2 t ADT: 47

LOCAL ROAD

Poor

Over: HEATHER BRANCH

071061502, Henry, IA

Built 1973 Load: 22.5 t ADT: 628

LOCAL

Poor

Over: BERRY BRANCH

071072905, Henry, IA

Built 1974 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 30

FM

Poor

Over: LYNN CREEK

072071201, Henry, IA

Built 1964 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 340

FM

Poor

Over: SUGAR CREEK

073071402, Henry, IA

Built 1960 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 640

FM

Poor

Over: BIG CREEK

072062804, Henry, IA

Built 1959 Load: 27.3 t ADT: 1,130

FM

Poor

Over: PRAIRIE CREEK

070062507, Henry, IA

Built 1963 Load: 28.1 t ADT: 450

FM

Poor

Over: LITTLE CEDAR CREEK

070072603, Henry, IA

Built 1972 Load: 30.5 t ADT: 650

FM

Poor

Over: SKUNK RIVER

070052820, Henry, IA

Built 1976 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 590

FM

Poor

Over: EAST FORK CROOKED CREEK

073050904, Henry, IA

Built 1970 Load: 36.3 t ADT: 910

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

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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.