Total bridges
117
Public highway bridges in Clark County
County profile · official public datasets
Clark County, KY
117 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 27.4% rated Good, 60.7% Fair, 12% Poor.
- 117
- Public bridges
- 27.4%
- Good condition
- 12%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Clark County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 107th
- of 120 on Poor share
- 12%
- Poor-condition share
- 117
- public highway bridges
- 1976
- 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.
Clark County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Clark County ranks #107 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12%). Clark County, Kentucky contains 117 public highway bridges. Roughly 27.4% are rated “Good,” 60.7% “Fair,” and 12% “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
27.4%
32 of 117 rated 7-9
Fair condition
60.7%
71 of 117 rated 5-6
Poor condition
12%
14 of 117 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#107 of 120
Among Kentucky counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 117 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 27.4% (32)
Fair 60.7% (71)
Poor 12% (14)
Clark County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,611 vehicle crossings a day
That is 2.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 901 crossings a day against 2,094 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 117 of 117 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
47% of Clark County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
55 of the 117 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 27.4% 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 49.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US-60 over I-64, built 1959, carries 6,197 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 14-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 12,611 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Clark County's bridges were built
117 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
9 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
17 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
22 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
14 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
17 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
18 bridges
- 2010s 8
2010–2019
8 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 22 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1976) matches the Kentucky average (1978).
How Clark County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Clark County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1976 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grayson County | 119 | 39.5% | 54.6% | 5.9% | 1972 |
| Fleming County | 117 | 32.5% | 62.4% | 5.1% | 1976 |
| Franklin County | 117 | 13.7% | 75.2% | 11.1% | 1980 |
| Clark County (this page) | 117 | 27.4% | 60.7% | 12% | 1976 |
| Caldwell County | 116 | 12.1% | 81% | 6.9% | 1972 |
| Morgan County | 114 | 50.9% | 46.5% | 2.6% | 1981 |
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 Clark 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 Clark County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KY (117 bridges here).
- Franklin County, GA · 117 bridges
- Polk County, GA · 117 bridges
- Benton County, MN · 117 bridges
- Lake County, MT · 117 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1976 here).
- Marion County, IN · avg 1976 · 958 bridges
- Mohave County, AZ · avg 1976 · 641 bridges
- Comanche County, OK · avg 1976 · 593 bridges
- Prince George's County, MD · avg 1976 · 576 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (14)
FOUR MILE RD
PoorOver: BACKWATERS OF KY RIVER
1.9 MI E OF JCT KY 1924, Clark, KY
Built 1940 Load: 7.9 t ADT: 96
RED RIVER RD
PoorOver: CSX RAILROAD
.20 MI WEST OF JCT KY 89, Clark, KY
Built 1919 Load: 8.2 t ADT: 183
STONER EPHESUS RD
PoorOver: GEORGES BR OF STONER CR
.2 MI S OF JCT KY 1960, Clark, KY
Built 1976 Load: 15.1 t ADT: 134
MUDDY CREEK KY 974
PoorOver: CSX RAILROAD
.5 MI E OF JCT KY 1923, Clark, KY
Built 1970 Load: 16.7 t ADT: 1,535
KY-418
PoorOver: BOONE CREEK
E FAYETTE-CLARK CO LINE, Clark, KY
Built 1976 Load: 18.2 t ADT: 690
JACKSON STREET
PoorOver: Unnamed stream
.1 MI S-WINN AVE-KY 15, Clark, KY
Built 1955 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 779
KY-1923
PoorOver: TWO MILE CREEK
.90 MI EAST OF JCT KY 627, Clark, KY
Built 1969 Load: 19.8 t ADT: 277
KY-1028
PoorOver: LULBEGRUD CREEK
.10 W OF POWELL CO. LINE, Clark, KY
Built 1983 Load: 27.0 t ADT: 64
KY-1923
PoorOver: TWO MILE CREEK
2.3 MI E. OF JCT KY 627, Clark, KY
Built 1972 Load: 32.4 t ADT: 277
FOUR MILE RD
PoorOver: TWO MILE CREEK
1.1 MI E JCT KY 1924, Clark, KY
Built 1989 Load: 32.7 t ADT: 96
KY-1927
PoorOver: FORK OF BOONE CREEK
1 MI E OF JCT KY 1923, Clark, KY
Built 1975 Load: 43.8 t ADT: 1,808
VAN METER RD
PoorOver: HANCOCK CREEK
2.3 MI N OF I-64 OP, Clark, KY
Built 1960 Load: 45.0 t ADT: 251
DONALDSON RD
PoorOver: DONALDSON CREEK
.5 MI E BIG STONER ROAD, Clark, KY
Built 1984 Load: 45.5 t ADT: 224
US-60
PoorOver: I-64
3 MI W OF MONTGOMERY C.L., Clark, KY
Built 1959 Load: 46.6 t ADT: 6,197
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.