County profile · official public datasets

Ballard County, KY

85 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 31.8% rated Good, 56.5% Fair, 11.8% Poor.

85
Public bridges: 31.8%
Good condition: 11.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ballard 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.

105th
of 120 on Poor share: 11.8%
Poor-condition share: 85
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.

Ballard County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ballard County ranks #105 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 11.8%). Ballard County, Kentucky contains 85 public highway bridges. Roughly 31.8% are rated “Good,” 56.5% “Fair,” and 11.8% “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 Ballard County

Good condition

31.8%

27 of 85 rated 7-9

Fair condition

56.5%

48 of 85 rated 5-6

Poor condition

11.8%

10 of 85 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#105 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 85 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

31.8% (27)

Fair

56.5% (48)

Poor

11.8% (10)

Ballard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,515 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 11.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 452 crossings a day against 1,299 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 85 of 85 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

55.3% of Ballard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

47 of the 85 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 31.8% 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 71.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US-62 over SUGAR CREEK, built 1928, carries 3,244 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 10-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 4,515 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

2
1940s

8
1950s

16
1960s

13
1970s

3
1980s

13
1990s

18
2000s

2
2010s

2
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 18 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 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 7 years older than the Kentucky average of 1978.

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Ballard County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 11.8% 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 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ballard 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
Allen County	88	15.9%	78.4%	5.7%	1983
Rockcastle County	87	20.7%	70.1%	9.2%	1983
Ballard County (this page)	85	31.8%	56.5%	11.8%	1971
Anderson County	84	17.9%	75%	7.1%	1975
Nicholas County	82	31.7%	63.4%	4.9%	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 Ballard 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 Ballard County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (85 bridges here).

Monroe County, AR · 85 bridges
Elbert County, CO · 85 bridges
Hardee County, FL · 85 bridges
Early County, GA · 85 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (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 85 Good 27 Fair 48 Poor 10

All bridges (85)

Sort:

Ballard County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ballard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,515 vehicle crossings a day

55.3% of Ballard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 71.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ballard 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 (85)

KY-358

GIBSON ROAD

KY-121

BROOKING ROAD

FRAIZER ROAD

KY-1105

KY-473

BUCHANAN RD(1107 )

US-60

KY-358

KY-473

KY-310

KY 1290

Johnson Road

US-60

US-51

Palmore Road

REID ROAD

KY-310

US-60

US-60

KY-358

US-51

US-60

HERCHELL JONES RD.

DEERFIELD ROAD

PACE LANE

PALMORE ROAD

KY-473

ALBERT HOOK ROAD

STAHL ROAD

BETHLEHEM CHURCH R

KY-1563

KY-802

US-62

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