County profile · official public datasets

Elliott County, KY

53 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 11.3% rated Good, 73.6% Fair, 15.1% Poor.

53
Public bridges
11.3%
Good condition
15.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Elliott County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

116th
of 120 on Poor share
15.1%
Poor-condition share
53
public highway bridges
1977
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.

Elliott County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Elliott County ranks #116 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 15.1%). Elliott County, Kentucky contains 53 public highway bridges. Roughly 11.3% are rated “Good,” 73.6% “Fair,” and 15.1% “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

53

Public highway bridges in Elliott County

Good condition

11.3%

6 of 53 rated 7-9

Fair condition

73.6%

39 of 53 rated 5-6

Poor condition

15.1%

8 of 53 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#116 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 53 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
11.3% (6)
Fair
73.6% (39)
Poor
15.1% (8)

Elliott County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,105 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 15.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 138 crossings a day against 467 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 53 of 53 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

43.4% of Elliott County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

23 of the 53 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 11.3% 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 35.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-504 over LITTLE CANEY CREEK, built 1966, carries 392 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,105 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Elliott County's bridges were built

53 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 11 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Elliott County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 15.1% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Elliott County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Gallatin County 55 3.6%
Owsley County 55 3.6%
Larue County 54 7.4%
Owen County 54 3.7%
Elliott County (this page) 53 15.1%
Jackson County 51 9.8%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (53 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1977 here).

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

Good-condition bridges (6)

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.