County profile · official public datasets

Allen County, KY

88 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 15.9% rated Good, 78.4% Fair, 5.7% Poor.

88
Public bridges: 15.9%
Good condition: 5.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 36%
lowest Poor share in state: 5.7%
Poor-condition share: 88
public highway bridges: 1983
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.

Allen County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Allen County ranks #43 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.7%). Allen County, Kentucky contains 88 public highway bridges. Roughly 15.9% are rated “Good,” 78.4% “Fair,” and 5.7% “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

Public highway bridges in Allen County

Good condition

15.9%

14 of 88 rated 7-9

Fair condition

78.4%

69 of 88 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.7%

5 of 88 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#43 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 88 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

15.9% (14)

Fair

78.4% (69)

Poor

5.7% (5)

Allen County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,380 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 276 crossings a day against 1,131 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 88 of 88 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

38.6% of Allen County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

34 of the 88 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 15.9% 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 43.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-3500 over TRAMMEL CREEK, built 1930, carries 602 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,380 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

6
1940s

1
1950s

10
1960s

15
1970s

8
1980s

7
1990s

15
2000s

9
2010s

12
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 15 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1983, 5 years newer than the Kentucky average of 1978.

How Allen County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Allen County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1983 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 5 years newer.

Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Allen County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Bath County	89	29.2%	66.3%	4.5%	1974
Boyd County	89	29.2%	61.8%	9%	1982
Boyle County	89	20.2%	76.4%	3.4%	1978
Crittenden County	89	38.2%	51.7%	10.1%	1972
Allen County (this page)	88	15.9%	78.4%	5.7%	1983
Rockcastle County	87	20.7%	70.1%	9.2%	1983

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (88 bridges here).

Chicot County, AR · 88 bridges
Prairie County, AR · 88 bridges
Grand County, CO · 88 bridges
Spalding County, GA · 88 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1983 here).

Dallas County, TX · avg 1983 · 3,230 bridges
Bexar County, TX · avg 1983 · 2,342 bridges
Sedgwick County, KS · avg 1983 · 1,333 bridges
Will County, IL · avg 1983 · 649 bridges

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

All 88 Good 14 Fair 69 Poor 5

All bridges (88)

Sort:

Allen County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Allen County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,380 vehicle crossings a day

38.6% of Allen County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 43.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Allen County compares with Kentucky'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 (88)

FOREST SPRING RD

J Foster Rd

NEW BUCK CREEK RD

HALIFAX BAILEY RD

CLARE RD

KY-921

KY-921

STAFFORD HOLLOW RD

KY-1333

KY-98

KY-1855

KY-100

KY-100

KY-1332

KY-2160

JEFFERSON SCHOOL R

KY-2160

US-31E

GAINESVILLE-PORT O

HADE BELL ROAD

KY-1332

KY-100

KY-98

CONCORD CH. ROAD

AMOS LONG CREEK RD

BIG SPRINGS RD

KY-1533

KY-101

KY-234

SHOOTING HILL ROAD

KY-1332

KY-100

HALIFAX SETTLE RD

GAINESVILLE-PORT O

KY-3500

KY-585

KY-2160

KY 3521

KY 3521

West Old State LN

W Old State Rd

KY-101

KY-1578

Osburn Rd

KY-585

AKERSVILLE RD

US-31E

KY-1578

DRY CREEK RD

KY 3499

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