County profile · official public datasets

Bath County, KY

89 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 29.2% rated Good, 66.3% Fair, 4.5% Poor.

89
Public bridges: 29.2%
Good condition: 4.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Bath County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 25%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.5%
Poor-condition share: 89
public highway bridges: 1974
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.

Bath County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Bath County ranks #30 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.5%). Bath County, Kentucky contains 89 public highway bridges. Roughly 29.2% are rated “Good,” 66.3% “Fair,” and 4.5% “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 Bath County

Good condition

29.2%

26 of 89 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.3%

59 of 89 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.5%

4 of 89 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#30 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 89 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

29.2% (26)

Fair

66.3% (59)

Poor

4.5% (4)

Bath County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,579 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,145 crossings a day against 1,316 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 89 of 89 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

50.6% of Bath County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

45 of the 89 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 29.2% 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 33.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US-60 over CROOKED RUN CREEK, built 1931, carries 2,888 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 8,579 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

10
1940s

3
1950s

9
1960s

21
1970s

9
1980s

9
1990s

16
2000s

2
2010s

7
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 21 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1974) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Bath County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.5% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1974 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Bath County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Breckinridge County	91	37.4%	54.9%	7.7%	1973
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
Bath County (this page)	89	29.2%	66.3%	4.5%	1974
Allen County	88	15.9%	78.4%	5.7%	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 Bath 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 Bath County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (89 bridges here).

Menard County, IL · 89 bridges
Wabash County, IL · 89 bridges
Noble County, IN · 89 bridges
Jackson County, SD · 89 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1974 here).

Knox County, TN · avg 1974 · 588 bridges
Summit County, OH · avg 1974 · 563 bridges
Onondaga County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges
Orange County, NY · avg 1974 · 472 bridges

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

All 89 Good 26 Fair 59 Poor 4

Fair-condition bridges (59)

Sort:

Bath County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Bath County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,579 vehicle crossings a day

50.6% of Bath County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 33.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Bath 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

Fair-condition bridges (59)

US-60

EAST TUNNEL HL RD

KY-36

CLEAR CRK RD

PECK PIKE

KY 1269

KY-36

KY-965

NORTH STEPSTONE RD

KY-36

KY-111

KY-211

FEARING RD

I-64

KY-1325

I-64-10 NC

I-64-10 NC

I-64

US-60

I-64-10 NC

KY-111

US-60

BLEVINS VALLEY RD

I-64-10 NC

I-64

I-64-10 NC

I-64

KY-36

I-64

US-60

I-64-10 NC

I-64

KY-36

KY-36

OLD PEASTICKS RD

KY-11

KY-111

KY-1944

KY-1602

KY-111

KY-965

KY-965

KY-1325

KY-1602

KY-1331

US-60

KY-1198

US-60

KY-1198

KENDALL SPGS RD

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