County profile · official public datasets

Ringgold County, IA

217 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25.3% rated Good, 31.3% Fair, 43.3% Poor.

217
Public bridges: 25.3%
Good condition: 43.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ringgold 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.

97th
of 99 on Poor share: 43.3%
Poor-condition share: 217
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Ringgold County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ringgold County ranks #97 of 99 Iowa counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 43.3%). Ringgold County, Iowa contains 217 public highway bridges. Roughly 25.3% are rated “Good,” 31.3% “Fair,” and 43.3% “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

217

Public highway bridges in Ringgold County

Good condition

25.3%

55 of 217 rated 7-9

Fair condition

31.3%

68 of 217 rated 5-6

Poor condition

43.3%

94 of 217 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#97 of 99

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

Condition distribution

Share of 217 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

25.3% (55)

Fair

31.3% (68)

Poor

43.3% (94)

Ringgold County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,510 vehicle crossings a day

That is 16.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 43.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 59 crossings a day against 280 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 217 of 217 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

56.7% of Ringgold County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

123 of the 217 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 25.3% 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 13.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

HWY 66 over SMALL NATURAL STREAM, built 1935, carries 737 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 94-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 5,510 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

1
1910s

1
1920s

1
1930s

17
1940s

25
1950s

46
1960s

27
1970s

16
1980s

19
1990s

26
2000s

21
2010s

10
2020s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 46 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 8 years older than the Iowa average of 1979.

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

The 5 Iowa counties nearest Ringgold County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 43.3% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 7 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ringgold County and the 5 Iowa counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Taylor County	220	24.5%	37.7%	37.7%	1973
Harrison County	217	24.9%	56.2%	18.9%	1969
Marion County	217	38.7%	48.8%	12.4%	1984
Ringgold County (this page)	217	25.3%	31.3%	43.3%	1971
Lee County	214	44.9%	41.6%	13.6%	1981
Floyd County	213	49.8%	35.7%	14.6%	1984

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside IA (217 bridges here).

Sullivan County, IN · 217 bridges
Elko County, NV · 217 bridges
Portage County, OH · 217 bridges
Warren County, PA · 217 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside IA (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges

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

All 217 Good 55 Fair 68 Poor 94

All bridges (217)

Sort:

Ringgold County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ringgold County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,510 vehicle crossings a day

56.7% of Ringgold County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 13.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ringgold 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 (217)

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