County profile · official public datasets

Mercer County, KY

75 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32% rated Good, 61.3% Fair, 6.7% Poor.

75
Public bridges
32%
Good condition
6.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 44%
lowest Poor share in state
6.7%
Poor-condition share
75
public highway bridges
1982
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.

Mercer County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Mercer County ranks #53 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.7%). Mercer County, Kentucky contains 75 public highway bridges. Roughly 32% are rated “Good,” 61.3% “Fair,” and 6.7% “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

75

Public highway bridges in Mercer County

Good condition

32%

24 of 75 rated 7-9

Fair condition

61.3%

46 of 75 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.7%

5 of 75 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#53 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 75 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good
32% (24)
Fair
61.3% (46)
Poor
6.7% (5)

Mercer County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,248 vehicle crossings a day

That is 3.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 650 crossings a day against 1,209 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 75 of 75 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

36% of Mercer County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

27 of the 75 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 32% 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 81.3% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US-68 over KENTUCKY RIVER, built 1954, carries 2,641 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 3,248 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

When Mercer County's bridges were built

75 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade

bridges

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 23 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 30.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

Source FHWA National Bridge Inventory (year built) As of 2024 NBI release

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Mercer County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1974 is 8 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Mercer County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County Bridges Poor
Wolfe County 77 3.9%
Wayne County 76 15.8%
McLean County 75 10.7%
Mercer County (this page) 75 6.7%
Carlisle County 74 2.7%
Montgomery County 74 10.8%

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (75 bridges here).

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1982 here).

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

All 75 Good 24 Fair 46 Poor 5

All bridges (75)

KY-1941

Good

Over: INDIAN CREEK

1.1 MI. SOUTH OF KY 390, Mercer, KY

Built 2002 Load: 39.9 t ADT: 31

KY-1987

Good

Over: SALT RIVER

.75 MI WEST OF JCT US 127, Mercer, KY

Built 1935 Load: 40.0 t ADT: 528

US 68

Good

Over: SHAKER CREEK

2 MI W OF JCT KY 33, Mercer, KY

Built 2010 Load: 40.8 t ADT: 2,055

KY-342

Good

Over: SOUTHERN RAILROAD

2.6 MI N OF S.JCT W/KY 33, Mercer, KY

Built 2000 Load: 40.9 t ADT: 431

KY-1988

Good

Over: SALT RIVER

1.5 MI WEST OF US 127, Mercer, KY

Built 2004 Load: 42.3 t ADT: 424

KY-33

Good

Over: SOUTHERN RAILROAD

.8 MI. N JCT KY 152, Mercer, KY

Built 2001 Load: 44.5 t ADT: 1,047

127 BYPASS SOUTH R

Good

Over: SOUTHERN RR

0.7 MI S JCT W/KY 152, Mercer, KY

Built 1996 Load: 44.8 t ADT: 4,783

HARRODSBURG BYPASS

Good

Over: SOUTHERN RAILROAD

0.7 MI S OF JCT W/KY 152, Mercer, KY

Built 1996 Load: 44.8 t ADT: 4,783

KY-1989

Good

Over: TOWN BRANCH

0.7 MI W OF JCT US 127, Mercer, KY

Built 2006 Load: 45.3 t ADT: 1,054

KY-152

Good

Over: CANE RUN CREEK

0.6 MI E OF JCT KY 33, Mercer, KY

Built 2003 Load: 45.9 t ADT: 1,689

Old Dixville Rd

Good

Over: Carmichael Br

200 S Irish Ridge RD, Mercer, KY

Built 2023 Load: 47.6 t ADT: 81

DEEP CREEK RD

Good

Over: CHAPLIN RIVER

.4MI S OF JCT KY 152, Mercer, KY

Built 2016 Load: 48.0 t ADT: 113

KY-1987

Good

Over: TRIB OF LYONS BRANCH

.8 MI E OF JCT KY 1160, Mercer, KY

Built 2008 Load: 59.9 t ADT: 244

KY-1989

Good

Over: SALT RIVER

1.6 MI.W JCT US 127, Mercer, KY

Built 1994 Load: 60.7 t ADT: 1,054

KY-1160

Good

Over: SALT RIVER

1.7 MI. W. JCT US 127, Mercer, KY

Built 1997 Load: 64.0 t ADT: 1,166

US 68

Good

Over: SHAKER CREEK

4.3 M E 127 BYPASS-US 68, Mercer, KY

Built 2017 Load: 72.3 t ADT: 2,055

KY-598

Good

Over: DRY BRANCH

.01 MI E OF JCT KY 1915, Mercer, KY

Built 1966 Load: 72.4 t ADT: 214

STRATTON RD

Good

Over: BRUSH CREEK

.2 MI N OF JCT KY 1160, Mercer, KY

Built 2020 Load: 78.1 t ADT: 73

CENTRAL PIKE

Good

Over: THOMPSON CREEK

.4 MI NORTH OF JCT KY 390, Mercer, KY

Built 2012 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 65

KY-152

Good

Over: HORNS BRANCH

1.4 MI W OF W-JCT US 68, Mercer, KY

Built 1930 Load: 99.8 t ADT: 4,500

KY 1989

Poor

Over: HAYDEN CREEK

1.8 MI E OF JCT KY 1941, Mercer, KY

Built 1982 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 225

KY-2329

Poor

Over: TOWN CREEK

.2 MI W JCT US 127, Mercer, KY

Built 1965 Load: 13.2 t ADT: 189

ALFORD RD

Poor

Over: S.FK. BUCHANAH CREEK

.8 MI W OF JCT KY 1987, Mercer, KY

Built 1965 Load: 16.3 t ADT: 165

OREGON RD

Poor

Over: N BR. LANDING RUN

1.8 MI- E JCT US 127, Mercer, KY

Built 1997 Load: 16.8 t ADT: 28

US-68

Poor

Over: KENTUCKY RIVER

AT JESSAMINE - MERCER CL, Mercer, KY

Built 1954 Load: 47.6 t ADT: 2,641

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Related

Browse all → | Rankings →
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.