County profile · official public datasets

Lee County, KY

42 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 35.7% rated Good, 57.1% Fair, 7.1% Poor.

42
Public bridges: 35.7%
Good condition: 7.1%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 48%
lowest Poor share in state: 7.1%
Poor-condition share: 42
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.

Lee County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Lee County ranks #57 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.1%). Lee County, Kentucky contains 42 public highway bridges. Roughly 35.7% are rated “Good,” 57.1% “Fair,” and 7.1% “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

Public highway bridges in Lee County

Good condition

35.7%

15 of 42 rated 7-9

Fair condition

57.1%

24 of 42 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.1%

3 of 42 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#57 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 42 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

35.7% (15)

Fair

57.1% (24)

Poor

7.1% (3)

Lee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 250 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.1% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 83 crossings a day against 865 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 42 of 42 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

45.2% of Lee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

19 of the 42 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 35.7% 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 54.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

LONG BRANCH RD over LONG BRANCH, built 1976, carries 136 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 250 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

2
1940s

1
1950s

5
1960s

3
1970s

11
1980s

5
1990s

6
2000s

3
2010s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 11 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.2% 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).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Lee County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.1% Poor share is the 1st-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 Lee County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Russell County	46	21.7%	69.6%	8.7%	1974
Trimble County	44	11.4%	79.5%	9.1%	1985
Lee County (this page)	42	35.7%	57.1%	7.1%	1977
Clinton County	41	17.1%	75.6%	7.3%	1971
Edmonson County	39	12.8%	74.4%	12.8%	1969
McCreary County	39	20.5%	64.1%	15.4%	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 Lee 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 Lee County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (42 bridges here).

Montgomery County, GA · 42 bridges
Concordia County, LA · 42 bridges
Talbot County, MD · 42 bridges
Chouteau County, MT · 42 bridges

Similar average build year

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

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 42 Good 15 Fair 24 Poor 3

Fair-condition bridges (24)

Sort:

Lee County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Lee County's Poor-condition bridges carry 250 vehicle crossings a day

45.2% of Lee County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 54.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Lee 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 (24)

KY-399

KY-851

Brushy Creek Rd

FIXER RD

KY-11

KY-587

KY-708

KY-11

BUFFALO ZION RD

GOOSE CREEK RD

TODDS RD

KY-52

KY-52

DELVINTA RD

KY-2016

KY-708

KY-708

KY-399

KY-399

CRESSMONT RD

CRESSMONT RD

KY-52

KY-52

CS 1031

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