County profile · official public datasets

Breathitt County, KY

124 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 44.4% rated Good, 48.4% Fair, 7.3% Poor.

124
Public bridges: 44.4%
Good condition: 7.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Breathitt County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 49%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.3%
Poor-condition share: 124
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.

Breathitt County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Breathitt County ranks #59 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.3%). Breathitt County, Kentucky contains 124 public highway bridges. Roughly 44.4% are rated “Good,” 48.4% “Fair,” and 7.3% “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

124

Public highway bridges in Breathitt County

Good condition

44.4%

55 of 124 rated 7-9

Fair condition

48.4%

60 of 124 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.3%

9 of 124 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#59 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 124 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

44.4% (55)

Fair

48.4% (60)

Poor

7.3% (9)

Breathitt County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,461 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 273 crossings a day against 1,141 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 124 of 124 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39.5% of Breathitt County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

49 of the 124 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 44.4% 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 60.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-1812 over QUICKSAND CREEK, built 1929, carries 1,483 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 9-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 2,461 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

4
1930s

8
1940s

2
1950s

17
1960s

11
1970s

26
1980s

5
1990s

22
2000s

15
2010s

8
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 26 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Breathitt County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.3% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Breathitt County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Campbell County	130	33.1%	59.2%	7.7%	1979
Knox County	127	19.7%	72.4%	7.9%	1979
Union County	127	21.3%	70.9%	7.9%	1972
Breathitt County (this page)	124	44.4%	48.4%	7.3%	1978
Hickman County	123	30.9%	60.2%	8.9%	1970
Grayson County	119	39.5%	54.6%	5.9%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (124 bridges here).

Bannock County, ID · 124 bridges
Caldwell County, LA · 124 bridges
St. Mary County, LA · 124 bridges
Bollinger County, MO · 124 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 124 Good 55 Fair 60 Poor 9

All bridges (124)

Sort:

Breathitt County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Breathitt County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,461 vehicle crossings a day

39.5% of Breathitt County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 60.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Breathitt 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 (124)

CUTCHIN ROAD

KY-1110

PRESS HOWARD FORK

FREEMAN FORK ROAD

LITTERAL LANE

KY-1812

KY-3193

KY-52

KY-1110

KY-30

KY-541

BIG BRANCH ROAD

KY-1933

LITTERAL LANE

BARGE CREEK ROAD

KY-30

CURT ROAD

KY-205

MIDDLE FORK ROAD

KY-30

KY-52

BELCHER FORK ROAD

CR-1028

UPPER RIVER CANEY

QUICKSAND CREEK RD

KY-1098

RUSSELL BRANCH RD

KY-28

KY-28

KY-1933

KY-15

KY-15

KY-542

KY-542

KY-1114

KY-30

KY-30

KY-30

KY-542

KY-1419

TRACE FORK ROAD

KY-542

ROUND BOTTOM

MILLER BRANCH ELKA

Big Branch Road

KY-1098

ROCK LICK ROAD

SIGMAN ROAD

BELCHER FORK ROAD

NIX BRANCH

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