Total bridges
201
Public highway bridges in McCracken County
County profile · official public datasets
McCracken County, KY
201 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 43.3% rated Good, 50.7% Fair, 6% Poor.
- 201
- Public bridges
- 43.3%
- Good condition
- 6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
McCracken County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- Top 38%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 6%
- Poor-condition share
- 201
- 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.
McCracken County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, McCracken County ranks #46 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6%). McCracken County, Kentucky contains 201 public highway bridges. Roughly 43.3% are rated “Good,” 50.7% “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.
Good condition
43.3%
87 of 201 rated 7-9
Fair condition
50.7%
102 of 201 rated 5-6
Poor condition
6%
12 of 201 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#46 of 120
Among Kentucky counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 201 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 43.3% (87)
Fair 50.7% (102)
Poor 6% (12)
McCracken County's Poor-condition bridges carry 21,098 vehicle crossings a day
That is 1.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,758 crossings a day against 4,900 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 201 of 201 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
39.3% of McCracken County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
79 of the 201 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 43.3% 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 80.2% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US-60 over P&L RAILWAY, built 1937, carries 16,923 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 12-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 21,098 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When McCracken County's bridges were built
201 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 8
1920–1929
8 bridges
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
26 bridges
- 1960s 15
1960–1969
15 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
49 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
21 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
33 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
26 bridges
- 2010s 11
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 49 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Kentucky average (1978).
How McCracken County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kentucky counties nearest McCracken 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 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calloway County | 210 | 26.7% | 62.4% | 11% | 1978 |
| Marshall County | 208 | 40.4% | 54.8% | 4.8% | 1976 |
| Bell County | 205 | 15.6% | 76.1% | 8.3% | 1977 |
| McCracken County (this page) | 201 | 43.3% | 50.7% | 6% | 1979 |
| Fayette County | 200 | 22.5% | 70% | 7.5% | 1980 |
| Carter County | 189 | 21.2% | 72.5% | 6.3% | 1974 |
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 McCracken 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 McCracken County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KY (201 bridges here).
- Williamson County, IL · 201 bridges
- Hancock County, IN · 201 bridges
- Pocahontas County, IA · 201 bridges
- De Soto County, LA · 201 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.
Fair-condition bridges (102)
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.