Total bridges
98
Public highway bridges in Butler County
County profile · official public datasets
Butler County, KY
98 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 9.2% rated Good, 81.6% Fair, 9.2% Poor.
- 98
- Public bridges
- 9.2%
- Good condition
- 9.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Butler 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.
- 90th
- of 120 on Poor share
- 9.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 98
- 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.
Butler County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Butler County ranks #90 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.2%). Butler County, Kentucky contains 98 public highway bridges. Roughly 9.2% are rated “Good,” 81.6% “Fair,” and 9.2% “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
9.2%
9 of 98 rated 7-9
Fair condition
81.6%
80 of 98 rated 5-6
Poor condition
9.2%
9 of 98 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#90 of 120
Among Kentucky counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 98 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 9.2% (9)
Fair 81.6% (80)
Poor 9.2% (9)
Butler County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,475 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 386 crossings a day against 1,171 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 98 of 98 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
62.2% of Butler County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
61 of the 98 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 9.2% 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 58.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US-231 over W FK INDIAN CAMP CREEK, built 1940, carries 2,036 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 3,475 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Butler County's bridges were built
98 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
10 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
16 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
9 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
22 bridges
- 1980s 8
1980–1989
8 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
14 bridges
- 2000s 4
2000–2009
4 bridges
- 2010s 8
2010–2019
8 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 7 years older than the Kentucky average of 1978.
How Butler County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Butler County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.2% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 6 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bullitt County | 99 | 10.1% | 81.8% | 8.1% | 1980 |
| Johnson County | 99 | 27.3% | 69.7% | 3% | 1983 |
| Butler County (this page) | 98 | 9.2% | 81.6% | 9.2% | 1971 |
| Mason County | 97 | 33% | 58.8% | 8.2% | 1980 |
| Fulton County | 95 | 26.3% | 62.1% | 11.6% | 1965 |
| Henry County | 94 | 22.3% | 64.9% | 12.8% | 1979 |
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 Butler 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 Butler County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KY (98 bridges here).
- Boone County, AR · 98 bridges
- Van Buren County, AR · 98 bridges
- Dougherty County, GA · 98 bridges
- Koochiching County, MN · 98 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.
Good-condition bridges (9)
WAVERLY SCHOOL RD
GoodOver: LITTLE BULL CREEK
2.5 MI W JCT KY 1328, Butler, KY
Built 1991 Load: 38.2 t ADT: 34
Waverly School Rd
GoodOver: Little Bull Creek
1.4 MI S OF KY 1328, Butler, KY
Built 2019 Load: 40.2 t ADT: 59
KY-70
GoodOver: Panther Creek
1.6 MI EAST OF JCT KY 106, Butler, KY
Built 2019 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 1,273
ODIS EMBRY ROAD
GoodOver: E. PRONG INDIAN CREEK
0.5 MI S OF JCT W/KY 2713, Butler, KY
Built 2007 Load: 45.4 t ADT: 65
REGION-REEDYVILLE
GoodOver: BIG REEDY CREEK
0.3 MI WEST OF KY 185, Butler, KY
Built 2008 Load: 49.2 t ADT: 116
KY-403
GoodOver: Unnamed Stream
1.6 Mi S of Jct/w US-231, Butler, KY
Built 2015 Load: 50.5 t ADT: 866
LOCK 5 RD
GoodOver: Unnamed Stream
0.6 N of Jnt KY 185, Butler, KY
Built 2016 Load: 59.6 t ADT: 150
Ky 340
GoodOver: E Prong Indian Cmp Crk
1.0 MI N of Jct Ky 79, Butler, KY
Built 2016 Load: 60.9 t ADT: 361
US 231
GoodOver: Embrys Ditch
1.0 MILE N OF I-165 NTR, Butler, KY
Built 2014 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 7,619
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.