County profile · official public datasets

Hancock County, KY

70 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 8.6% rated Good, 88.6% Fair, 2.9% Poor.

70
Public bridges: 8.6%
Good condition: 2.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Hancock County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 10%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.9%
Poor-condition share: 70
public highway bridges: 1975
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.

Hancock County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hancock County ranks #12 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.9%). Hancock County, Kentucky contains 70 public highway bridges. Roughly 8.6% are rated “Good,” 88.6% “Fair,” and 2.9% “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 Hancock County

Good condition

8.6%

6 of 70 rated 7-9

Fair condition

88.6%

62 of 70 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.9%

2 of 70 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#12 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 70 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

8.6% (6)

Fair

88.6% (62)

Poor

2.9% (2)

Hancock County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,809 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.5% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 905 crossings a day against 184 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 70 of 70 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

40% of Hancock County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

28 of the 70 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 8.6% 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 83.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-69 over CANEY CREEK, built 1932, carries 1,509 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,809 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

7
1940s

4
1950s

8
1960s

7
1970s

8
1980s

10
1990s

16
2000s

7
2010s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1975) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Hancock County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Hancock County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Carlisle County	74	35.1%	62.2%	2.7%	1973
Martin County	70	28.6%	58.6%	12.9%	1985
Monroe County	70	15.7%	77.1%	7.1%	1965
Hancock County (this page)	70	8.6%	88.6%	2.9%	1975
Carroll County	68	13.2%	75%	11.8%	1970
Garrard County	67	25.4%	68.7%	6%	1980

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (70 bridges here).

Jefferson County, FL · 70 bridges
Jasper County, GA · 70 bridges
Treutlen County, GA · 70 bridges
Turner County, GA · 70 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1975 here).

San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges

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

All 70 Good 6 Fair 62 Poor 2

All bridges (70)

Sort:

Hancock County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Hancock County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,809 vehicle crossings a day

40% of Hancock County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 83.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Hancock 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

All bridges (70)

KY-69

KY-69

KY-2181

FRANKLIN GAYNOR RO

MUDDY GUT ROAD

KY-2124

KY-1700

QUISENBERRY ROAD

KY-69

BEAUCHAMP ROAD

KY-1389

BUTLER LANE

KY-1389

KY-1265

HORSE FORK ROAD

KY-334

KY-1847

HAWESVILLE EASTON

HARTFORD ROAD

MIDDLE KNOTTSVILLE

ED BROWN ROAD

JOE POWERS ROAD

TRUMAN YOUNG ROAD

NORTH INDIAN HILL

KY-69

KY-144

SAND HILL ROAD

KY-334

SQUIRREL TAIL HOLL

JOHN PATE ROAD

KY-657

KY-69

KY-69

KY-1700

KY-69

KY-3101

KY-2181

KY-1389

KY-657

REED LANE

LEE HENDERSON ROAD

FRANK LUTTRELL ROA

US-60

KY-334

KY-334

COUNTY LINE ROAD

THOMAS LANE

MIDDLE KNOTTSVILLE

KY-144

US-60 NC

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