County profile · official public datasets

Garrard County, KY

67 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25.4% rated Good, 68.7% Fair, 6% Poor.

67
Public bridges: 25.4%
Good condition: 6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 39%
lowest Poor share in state: 6%
Poor-condition share: 67
public highway bridges: 1980
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.

Garrard County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Garrard County ranks #47 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6%). Garrard County, Kentucky contains 67 public highway bridges. Roughly 25.4% are rated “Good,” 68.7% “Fair,” and 6% “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

Public highway bridges in Garrard County

Good condition

25.4%

17 of 67 rated 7-9

Fair condition

68.7%

46 of 67 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4 of 67 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#47 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 67 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

25.4% (17)

Fair

68.7% (46)

Poor

6% (4)

Garrard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,836 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 459 crossings a day against 812 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 66 of 67 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

46.3% of Garrard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

31 of the 67 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 25.4% 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 67.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-39 over GILBERTS CREEK, built 1949, carries 1,242 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 4-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,836 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

1
1940s

7
1950s

8
1960s

4
1970s

8
1980s

1
1990s

20
2000s

8
2010s

5
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 20 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1980) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Garrard County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1980 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 6 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Garrard County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Hancock County	70	8.6%	88.6%	2.9%	1975
Martin County	70	28.6%	58.6%	12.9%	1985
Monroe County	70	15.7%	77.1%	7.1%	1965
Carroll County	68	13.2%	75%	11.8%	1970
Garrard County (this page)	67	25.4%	68.7%	6%	1980
Oldham County	66	7.6%	84.8%	7.6%	1977

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (67 bridges here).

Okeechobee County, FL · 67 bridges
Stephens County, GA · 67 bridges
Emmons County, ND · 67 bridges
Sequatchie County, TN · 67 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1980 here).

Tulsa County, OK · avg 1980 · 1,135 bridges
Miami-Dade County, FL · avg 1980 · 1,057 bridges
Pulaski County, AR · avg 1980 · 721 bridges
McLennan County, TX · avg 1980 · 714 bridges

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

All 67 Good 17 Fair 46 Poor 4

Fair-condition bridges (46)

Sort:

Garrard County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Garrard County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,836 vehicle crossings a day

46.3% of Garrard County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 67.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Garrard 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

Fair-condition bridges (46)

KY-52

GOOCH PIKE

NINA RIDGE

SUTTON LANE

DRY BRANCH ROAD

BACK CREEK ROAD

RICHMOND RD LOOP 3

KY-39

KY-1131

KY-1131

KY-954

KY-954

KY-954

KY-954

WHITE LICK RD

KY-1295

US-27

US-27

KY-39

BOONES CREEK RD

KY-1150

KY-954

NOE ROAD

FALL LICK RD

WALLACETOWN RD.

KY-954

HARMONS LICK RD

KY-1355

BOONES CREEK RD

BROADUS BRANCH RD

WALLACETOWN RD

WARD HENRY RD

KY-1295

DAY ROAD

OLD RAILROAD GRADE

LONG BRANCH RD

PAPER MILL RD

KY-1355

WHITE LICK RD

DRAKES CREEK ROAD

KY-1971

FROG BRANCH RD

KY-39

CALICO RD

KY-1355

WHITE LICK RD

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