County profile · official public datasets

Jefferson County, KY

662 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 10.7% rated Good, 82% Fair, 7.3% Poor.

662
Public bridges: 10.7%
Good condition: 7.3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 48%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.3%
Poor-condition share: 662
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Jefferson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Jefferson County ranks #58 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.3%). Jefferson County, Kentucky contains 662 public highway bridges. Roughly 10.7% are rated “Good,” 82% “Fair,” and 7.3% “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

662

Public highway bridges in Jefferson County

Good condition

10.7%

71 of 662 rated 7-9

Fair condition

82%

543 of 662 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.3%

48 of 662 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#58 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 662 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

10.7% (71)

Fair

82% (543)

Poor

7.3% (48)

Jefferson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,547,742 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 32,245 crossings a day against 35,928 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 659 of 662 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

42.4% of Jefferson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

281 of the 662 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 10.7% 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 10.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-65 over STANDIFORD LN, built 1988, carries 159,448 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 48-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,547,742 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1900s

2
1910s

7
1920s

8
1930s

24
1940s

20
1950s

43
1960s

125
1970s

74
1980s

151
1990s

73
2000s

55
2010s

68
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 151 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Jefferson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.3% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Jefferson County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Jefferson County (this page)	662	10.7%	82%	7.3%	1979
Graves County	380	33.4%	57.1%	9.5%	1976
Pike County	331	26.9%	59.5%	13.6%	1984
Christian County	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

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (662 bridges here).

St. Louis County, MN · 663 bridges
Hinds County, MS · 663 bridges
Lancaster County, NE · 661 bridges
Bell County, TX · 660 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges
Madison County, IL · avg 1979 · 523 bridges

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

All 662 Good 71 Fair 543 Poor 48

Fair-condition bridges (543)

Sort:

Jefferson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Jefferson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,547,742 vehicle crossings a day

42.4% of Jefferson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 10.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Jefferson 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 (543)

KY 155

KY 329

US 31E

US31W & I-264 RMPS

I-265

I-64 EB

EASUM RD

SAVAGE DR

I-265 NB

KY 1531

KY 1531

I-64 WB

I-64 WB ON RAMP 1

KY 1849

I-264

I-65

I-64 WB OFF RAMP 4

LYNDON LN

FREEDOM WAY SB

OLD CANNONS LN

I-64 EB OFF RAMP

MEADOWBROOK DR

I-65 SB

KY 2052

N 27th Street

US 31E

MARY SUE DR

I-71 NB

I-65

US 31 (2ND ST)

E INDIAN TRL

I-65

HOBBS LN

HIKES LN

I-65 NB OFF RAMP

I-265 SB OFF RAMP

I-71 NB

LIME KILN LN

REHL RD

PAYNE ST

US 31W SB

US 31W NB

BROAD RUN PKWY

KY 61

US 42

I-64 WB RAMP

KY 1531

CRITTENDEN DR

I-264

JOHNSON SCHOOL RD

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