County profile · official public datasets

Boyle County, KY

89 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 20.2% rated Good, 76.4% Fair, 3.4% Poor.

89
Public bridges: 20.2%
Good condition: 3.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 13%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.4%
Poor-condition share: 89
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Boyle County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Boyle County ranks #15 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.4%). Boyle County, Kentucky contains 89 public highway bridges. Roughly 20.2% are rated “Good,” 76.4% “Fair,” and 3.4% “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 Boyle County

Good condition

20.2%

18 of 89 rated 7-9

Fair condition

76.4%

68 of 89 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.4%

3 of 89 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#15 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

20.2% (18)

Fair

76.4% (68)

Poor

3.4% (3)

Boyle County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,209 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 403 crossings a day against 1,876 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.

42.7% of Boyle County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

38 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 20.2% 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 52.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-3042 over DIX RVR-HERRINGTON LAKE, built 1924, carries 630 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,209 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

4
1930s

3
1940s

4
1950s

12
1960s

10
1970s

6
1980s

11
1990s

26
2000s

6
2010s

7

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 26 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.2% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Boyle County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Boyle 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
Bath County	89	29.2%	66.3%	4.5%	1974
Boyd County	89	29.2%	61.8%	9%	1982
Crittenden County	89	38.2%	51.7%	10.1%	1972
Boyle County (this page)	89	20.2%	76.4%	3.4%	1978
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 Boyle 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 Boyle 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 (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 89 Good 18 Fair 68 Poor 3

Fair-condition bridges (68)

Sort:

Boyle County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Boyle County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,209 vehicle crossings a day

42.7% of Boyle County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 52.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Boyle 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 (68)

TAR LICK ROAD

KY-34

HAYES-MAY ROAD

Claunch RD.

KY-34

KY-37

KY-37

KY-37

KY-1108

KY-1822

KY-243

SHORT LINE ROAD

MINOR BRANCH ROAD

Wolford Rd

KY-1856

CASH ROAD

KY-37

KY-37

KY-590

LOWER SALT RIVER R

KY-243

SPRINGFIELD RD

SPRINGFIELD ROAD

CRAWFORD HOLLOW RO

KY 52

CRAINTOWN ROAD

CRAINTOWN ROAD

US 127B

ELK CAVE ROAD

BULL LANE

MINORS BR. RD

KY-1805

CARPENTER CREEK RO

US-150

SOUTH BUSTER PIKE

US-150

WARDS BRANCH ROAD

SPRINGFIELD RD

KY-1856

KY-1822

DRY FORK ROAD

CARPENTER CREEK RD

Gose Pike

KY-37

DRY FORK ROAD

MILL CREEK ROAD

OSCAR BRADLEY RD

KY-1896

KY-2168

KY 52

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