Total bridges
88
Public highway bridges in Allen County
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.
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.
When Allen County's bridges were built
88 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s
1930–1939
6 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
10 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
15 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
8 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
7 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
15 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
9 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
12 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
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.
| 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.
Fair-condition bridges (69)
US-31E
FairOver: LITTLE TRAMMEL CREEK
.10 MI SOU. OF JCT KY 482, Allen, KY
Built 1965 Load: 47.6 t ADT: 4,692
MT. CARMEL CH. RD.
FairOver: ROUGH CREEK
2.45 MI W of JCT KY-1421, Allen, KY
Built 2003 Load: 47.8 t ADT: 141
CARL HURT ROAD
FairOver: SULPHUR CREEK
1.15 MI EAST JCT KY 1332, Allen, KY
Built 2007 Load: 48.7 t ADT: 42
E OLD STATE RD
FairOver: WEST BAYS FORK CREEK
3.0 MI N JCT US 231, Allen, KY
Built 2000 Load: 49.3 t ADT: 407
WILLIE LONES ROAD
FairOver: PUNCHEON CREEK
1.3 MI E JCT KY 1333, Allen, KY
Built 2008 Load: 49.6 t ADT: 141
MAYSVILLE RD
FairOver: BAYS FORK
2.5 MI S JCT KY 98, Allen, KY
Built 1998 Load: 49.8 t ADT: 54
US-31E
FairOver: TRAMMEL FORK CREEK
3.2 MI S - JCT KY 100, Allen, KY
Built 1986 Load: 50.4 t ADT: 5,792
E. NEW ROE RD
FairOver: MIDDLE FK-DRAKES CK
1.7 MI S JCT CALVERT RD, Allen, KY
Built 1997 Load: 51.7 t ADT: 49
KY-980
FairOver: W BAYS FORK CREEK
.02 MI E OF JCT KY 1386, Allen, KY
Built 1960 Load: 53.2 t ADT: 7,604
BLANKENSHIP RD
FairOver: TRAMMEL CREEK
.2 MI WEST KY 2160, Allen, KY
Built 1992 Load: 53.6 t ADT: 24
US-31E
FairOver: WEST BAYS FK
.5 MI E CL SCOTTSVILLE, Allen, KY
Built 1985 Load: 54.4 t ADT: 7,900
PERRYTOWN RD
FairOver: MIDDLE FORK OF DRAKES CR
1.9 MI N OF KY 100, Allen, KY
Built 2002 Load: 61.4 t ADT: 116
KY-1147
FairOver: LITTLE TRAMMEL CREEK
.01 MI EAST OF JCT US 31E, Allen, KY
Built 1967 Load: 63.3 t ADT: 198
CARTER CHURCH RD
FairOver: GARRETT CREEK
.1 MI E JCT US 31E, Allen, KY
Built 1995 Load: 64.2 t ADT: 1,070
DOVER CHURCH ROAD
FairOver: ROUGH CREEK
2.2 MI. SOUTH JCT KY 2160, Allen, KY
Built 2007 Load: 64.3 t ADT: 357
DURHAM SPRINGS RD
FairOver: TRIB. OF BAYS FORK
.01 MI S. JCT OF KY 3499, Allen, KY
Built 1998 Load: 66.9 t ADT: 168
East Old State Rd
FairOver: Big Branch
3 Mi East of Jct US 231, Allen, KY
Built 2016 Load: 70.7 t ADT: 472
KY-585
FairOver: Middle Fork Drakes Creek
At Simpson - Allen CL, Allen, KY
Built 2020 Load: 81.3 t ADT: 519
KY-3499
FairOver: CUSHENBERRY BRANCH
1.5 MI N OF JCT KY 89, Allen, KY
Built 1982 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 1,404
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.