Total bridges
300
Public highway bridges in Christian County
County profile · official public datasets
Christian County, KY
300 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 23.7% rated Good, 72.3% Fair, 4% Poor.
- 300
- Public bridges
- 23.7%
- Good condition
- 4%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Christian County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 21%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 4%
- Poor-condition share
- 300
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- 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.
Christian County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Christian County ranks #25 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4%). Christian County, Kentucky contains 300 public highway bridges. Roughly 23.7% are rated “Good,” 72.3% “Fair,” and 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.
Good condition
23.7%
71 of 300 rated 7-9
Fair condition
72.3%
217 of 300 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4%
12 of 300 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#25 of 120
Among Kentucky counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 300 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 23.7% (71)
Fair 72.3% (217)
Poor 4% (12)
Christian County's Poor-condition bridges carry 17,007 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,417 crossings a day against 3,855 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 297 of 300 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
43% of Christian County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
129 of the 300 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 23.7% 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 54.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US-68 over LITTLE RIVER, built 1936, carries 9,241 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 12-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 17,007 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Christian County's bridges were built
300 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1900s 1
1900–1909
1 bridges
- 1920s 5
1920–1929
5 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
28 bridges
- 1940s 10
1940–1949
10 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
30 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
32 bridges
- 1970s 27
1970–1979
27 bridges
- 1980s 10
1980–1989
10 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
53 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
68 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
34 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 68 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the Kentucky average (1978).
How Christian County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Christian County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 5 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pike County | 331 | 26.9% | 59.5% | 13.6% | 1984 |
| Christian County (this page) | 300 | 23.7% | 72.3% | 4% | 1981 |
| Daviess County | 282 | 18.4% | 75.9% | 5.7% | 1979 |
| Harlan County | 252 | 25.8% | 58.3% | 15.9% | 1980 |
| Hopkins County | 251 | 10.4% | 80.5% | 9.2% | 1967 |
| Ohio County | 227 | 8.4% | 85% | 6.6% | 1970 |
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 Christian 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 Christian County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KY (300 bridges here).
- DeKalb County, AL · 300 bridges
- Washington County, MD · 300 bridges
- Newton County, MO · 300 bridges
- Dawson County, NE · 300 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (12)
CR-1086
PoorOver: CSX RAILROAD
.5 M. E. OF U. S. 41, Christian, KY
Built 1950 Load: 0.1 t ADT: 40
PENNYRILE FOREST S
PoorOver: CLIFTY CREEK
0.14 MI.W. JCT KY 398, Christian, KY
Built 1945 Load: 2.7 t ADT: 35
KY-107
PoorOver: DONALDSON CREEK
3.6 MI S.W. OF JCT KY 287, Christian, KY
Built 1932 Load: 9.1 t ADT: 611
US-68
PoorOver: LITTLE RIVER
.30 MI WEST OF JCT US 41, Christian, KY
Built 1936 Load: 18.1 t ADT: 9,241
KY-164
PoorOver: UNNAMED BRANCH
1.8 MI S.W. OF JCT KY 117, Christian, KY
Built 1935 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 906
KY-272
PoorOver: UNNAMED STREAM
2.8 MI W JCT KY 164, Christian, KY
Built 1935 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 1,347
KY-117
PoorOver: little river
.70 MI N.W. OF JCT KY 107, Christian, KY
Built 1963 Load: 21.3 t ADT: 522
KY-1453
PoorOver: MONTGOMERY CREEK
1.7 MI SOU. OF JCT US 41, Christian, KY
Built 1960 Load: 34.1 t ADT: 252
KY-109
PoorOver: MCKNIGHTS CREEK
1.5 MI N.W. OF JCT KY 134, Christian, KY
Built 1932 Load: 36.5 t ADT: 655
KY-107
PoorOver: DONALDSON CREEK
3.8 MI S.W. OF JCT KY 287, Christian, KY
Built 1932 Load: 37.9 t ADT: 611
KY-2641
PoorOver: PENNYRILE PARKWAY
.2 MI E-OLD MADISONVLL RD, Christian, KY
Built 1968 Load: 38.3 t ADT: 743
KY-800
PoorOver: PENNYRILE PARKWAY
1.3 MI E OF JCT US 41, Christian, KY
Built 1967 Load: 72.6 t ADT: 2,044
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.