County profile · official public datasets

Howard County, IA

210 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 41.9% rated Good, 35.2% Fair, 22.9% Poor.

210
Public bridges: 41.9%
Good condition: 22.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

63rd
of 99 on Poor share: 22.9%
Poor-condition share: 210
public highway bridges: 1984
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.

Howard County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Howard County ranks #63 of 99 Iowa counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 22.9%). Howard County, Iowa contains 210 public highway bridges. Roughly 41.9% are rated “Good,” 35.2% “Fair,” and 22.9% “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

210

Public highway bridges in Howard County

Good condition

41.9%

88 of 210 rated 7-9

Fair condition

35.2%

74 of 210 rated 5-6

Poor condition

22.9%

48 of 210 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#63 of 99

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

Condition distribution

Share of 210 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

41.9% (88)

Fair

35.2% (74)

Poor

22.9% (48)

Howard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,181 vehicle crossings a day

That is 13.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 22.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 191 crossings a day against 288 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 210 of 210 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

35.2% of Howard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

74 of the 210 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 41.9% 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 15.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

WILLOW AVE over BOHEMIAN CREEK, built 1951, carries 1,420 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 48-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 9,181 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

pre-1900

1
1920s

1
1930s

2
1940s

14
1950s

26
1960s

13
1970s

27
1980s

34
1990s

24
2000s

24
2010s

32
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 34 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1984, 5 years newer than the Iowa average of 1979.

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

The 5 Iowa counties nearest Howard County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 22.9% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1984 against a peer-group mean of 1979 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Howard County and the 5 Iowa counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Lee County	214	44.9%	41.6%	13.6%	1981
Floyd County	213	49.8%	35.7%	14.6%	1984
Montgomery County	210	21%	53.8%	25.2%	1973
Howard County (this page)	210	41.9%	35.2%	22.9%	1984
Shelby County	207	36.2%	54.1%	9.7%	1979
Washington County	207	39.6%	44.4%	15.9%	1980

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IA (210 bridges here).

Fulton County, IL · 210 bridges
Clinton County, IN · 210 bridges
Calloway County, KY · 210 bridges
Amite County, MS · 210 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IA (1984 here).

Hennepin County, MN · avg 1984 · 936 bridges
Duval County, FL · avg 1984 · 831 bridges
El Paso County, CO · avg 1984 · 686 bridges
Bell County, TX · avg 1984 · 660 bridges

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

All 210 Good 88 Fair 74 Poor 48

All bridges (210)

Sort:

Howard County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Howard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 9,181 vehicle crossings a day

35.2% of Howard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 15.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Howard 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 (210)

78TH ST

FIR AVE

V36 OAK AVE

RIVER RD

40TH ST

40TH ST

V10 DALE AVE

ROBIN AVE

180TH ST

JACKSON ST

180TH ST

200TH ST

180TH ST

FM

FM 150TH ST

PINE AVE

ROBIN AVE

LOCAL FIR AVE

FM WILLOW AVE

LOC N BRANCH RD

LILAC AVE

LOCAL 60TH ST

LOCAL FIR AVE

LOC UNITY AVE

30TH ST

30TH ST

FM

FM-QUAIL AVE

LOCAL

35TH ST

10TH ST

LOCAL RD

LOCAL

YANKEE AVE

25TH ST

YOUNG AVE

KENT AVE

LOC MILL RD

LOC VALLEY AVE

FM 125TH ST

FM-ROBIN AVE

185TH ST

FM 190TH ST

FM-ROBIN AVE

V46 (ROBIN AVE)

FM DOUGLAS AVE

DOUGLAS AVE

YANKEE AVE

BELL AVE

US 63

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