Total bridges
173
Public highway bridges in Henry County
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.
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
- 1910s 6
1910–1919
6 bridges
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
22 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
21 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
24 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
19 bridges
- 1990s 13
1990–1999
13 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
41 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
17 bridges
- 2020s 4
2020–2029
4 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).
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.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fremont County | 179 | 33% | 47.5% | 19.6% | 1977 |
| Des Moines County | 176 | 40.9% | 42.6% | 16.5% | 1978 |
| Henry County (this page) | 173 | 41% | 37.6% | 21.4% | 1982 |
| Union County | 169 | 30.2% | 37.3% | 32.5% | 1978 |
| Clarke County | 168 | 27.4% | 41.1% | 31.5% | 1977 |
| Greene County | 168 | 35.1% | 50% | 14.9% | 1973 |
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).
- Coweta County, GA · 173 bridges
- Somerset County, ME · 173 bridges
- Johnson County, NE · 173 bridges
- Merrick County, NE · 173 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 (173)
HICKORY AVE
PoorOver: LYNN CREEK
072062905, Henry, IA
Built 1988 Load: 14.3 t ADT: 73
LOCAL
PoorOver: DICKEY CREEK
071063602, Henry, IA
Built 1956 Load: 16.1 t ADT: 73
LOCAL
PoorOver: SUGAR CREEK
073072802, Henry, IA
Built 1976 Load: 16.1 t ADT: 41
FM
PoorOver: MUD CREEK
070051106, Henry, IA
Built 1972 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 70
LOCAL
PoorOver: BRANCH BRUSH CREEK
071053204, Henry, IA
Built 1951 Load: 16.6 t ADT: 51
X030 EXT(GEODE)
PoorOver: CEDAR CREEK
070052506, Henry, IA
Built 1935 Load: 17.0 t ADT: 70
LOCAL ROAD
PoorOver: SPEARMAN BRANCH
071062603, Henry, IA
Built 1958 Load: 17.0 t ADT: 73
FM
PoorOver: SUGAR CREEK
073072803, Henry, IA
Built 1959 Load: 17.1 t ADT: 100
LOCAL
PoorOver: S BR BIG CREEK
071050205, Henry, IA
Built 1996 Load: 17.4 t ADT: 5
LOCAL
PoorOver: MUD CREEK
070051503, Henry, IA
Built 1959 Load: 17.6 t ADT: 73
FM
PoorOver: MUD CREEK
070073102, Henry, IA
Built 1958 Load: 17.7 t ADT: 60
FM
PoorOver: CEDAR CREEK
070070903, Henry, IA
Built 1952 Load: 17.8 t ADT: 60
235TH STREET
PoorOver: BIG CREEK
071071227, Henry, IA
Built 1957 Load: 19.4 t ADT: 2,930
LOCAL
PoorOver: LOCAL STREAM
073050702, Henry, IA
Built 1957 Load: 20.2 t ADT: 47
LOCAL ROAD
PoorOver: HEATHER BRANCH
071061502, Henry, IA
Built 1973 Load: 22.5 t ADT: 628
LOCAL
PoorOver: BERRY BRANCH
071072905, Henry, IA
Built 1974 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 30
FM
PoorOver: LYNN CREEK
072071201, Henry, IA
Built 1964 Load: 22.7 t ADT: 340
FM
PoorOver: SUGAR CREEK
073071402, Henry, IA
Built 1960 Load: 24.5 t ADT: 640
FM
PoorOver: BIG CREEK
072062804, Henry, IA
Built 1959 Load: 27.3 t ADT: 1,130
FM
PoorOver: PRAIRIE CREEK
070062507, Henry, IA
Built 1963 Load: 28.1 t ADT: 450
FM
PoorOver: LITTLE CEDAR CREEK
070072603, Henry, IA
Built 1972 Load: 30.5 t ADT: 650
FM
PoorOver: SKUNK RIVER
070052820, Henry, IA
Built 1976 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 590
FM
PoorOver: 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
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.