County profile · official public datasets

Letcher County, KY

179 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 36.3% rated Good, 52.5% Fair, 11.2% Poor.

179
Public bridges: 36.3%
Good condition: 11.2%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

102nd
of 120 on Poor share: 11.2%
Poor-condition share: 179
public highway bridges: 1981
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.

Letcher County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Letcher County ranks #102 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 11.2%). Letcher County, Kentucky contains 179 public highway bridges. Roughly 36.3% are rated “Good,” 52.5% “Fair,” and 11.2% “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

179

Public highway bridges in Letcher County

Good condition

36.3%

65 of 179 rated 7-9

Fair condition

52.5%

94 of 179 rated 5-6

Poor condition

11.2%

20 of 179 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#102 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 179 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

36.3% (65)

Fair

52.5% (94)

Poor

11.2% (20)

Letcher County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,709 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 11.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 635 crossings a day against 794 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 179 of 179 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39.1% of Letcher County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

70 of the 179 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 36.3% 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 15.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-931 over Sandlick Creek, built 1931, carries 2,026 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 12,709 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

1
1920s

5
1930s

15
1940s

11
1950s

22
1960s

7
1970s

25
1980s

19
1990s

15
2000s

7
2010s

18
2020s

34

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2020s, when 34 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19% of those with a recorded year. Those records fall in the current decade of the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Letcher County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 11.2% Poor share is the 6th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1981 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Letcher County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Carter County	189	21.2%	72.5%	6.3%	1974
Henderson County	184	8.2%	87%	4.9%	1978
Scott County	183	28.4%	61.7%	9.8%	1985
Pulaski County	182	19.8%	74.7%	5.5%	1980
Letcher County (this page)	179	36.3%	52.5%	11.2%	1981
Perry County	176	42%	53.4%	4.5%	1987

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (179 bridges here).

Graham County, AZ · 179 bridges
Thomas County, GA · 179 bridges
Carroll County, IL · 179 bridges
Fremont County, IA · 179 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1981 here).

Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges

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

All 179 Good 65 Fair 94 Poor 20

All bridges (179)

Sort:

Cassel Crk Hollow

Good

Over: Little Cowan Creek

0.05 M SE of JCT KY-2035, Letcher, KY

Built 2023 Load: 62.2 t ADT: 50

KY-343

Good

Over: Yonts Fork

0.05 MI E JCT KY 317, Letcher, KY

Built 1997 Load: 63.5 t ADT: 1,840

KY-931

Good

Over: Cowan Creek

1.8 MI SW of JCT KY 2035, Letcher, KY

Built 1980 Load: 65.3 t ADT: 1,135

Copperhead Rd

Good

Over: Crafts Colley Creek

0.1 MI West of KY 2034, Letcher, KY

Built 2012 Load: 65.4 t ADT: 294

Margie & Ed Road

Good

Over: Cowen Creek

0.01 MI S of JCT KY 931, Letcher, KY

Built 2023 Load: 68.0 t ADT: 50

NICKS BR

Good

Over: NORTH FORK KY RIVER

.01 MI N JCT KY-1862, Letcher, KY

Built 2016 Load: 70.3 t ADT: 12

KY-463

Good

Over: TRACE BR OF LINE FORK

.80 MI NOR. OF JCT KY 510, Letcher, KY

Built 1950 Load: 70.4 t ADT: 333

Racetrack Hollow

Good

Over: Rockhouse Creek

0.15 NE of JCT KY 7, Letcher, KY

Built 2016 Load: 71.3 t ADT: 309

CAMDEN RD

Good

Over: ELKHORN CREEK

EAST JENKINS, Letcher, KY

Letcher County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Letcher County's Poor-condition bridges carry 12,709 vehicle crossings a day

39.1% of Letcher County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 15.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Letcher 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 (179)

Cassel Crk Hollow

KY-343

KY-931

Copperhead Rd

Margie & Ed Road

NICKS BR

KY-463

Racetrack Hollow

CAMDEN RD

BLAIR BR

KY-7

E Potter Rd

Low Gap Br

Bridge Loop

KY-1862

KONA DR CONN

KY-588

Kingdom Come Crk

KY-931

KY-806

KY-803

Whitco Loop

KY-160

KY-931

KY-806

KY-160

KY-1103

KY-317

KY-2036

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