Total bridges
78
Public highway bridges in Metcalfe County
County profile · official public datasets
Metcalfe County, KY
78 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 10.3% rated Good, 87.2% Fair, 2.6% Poor.
- 78
- Public bridges
- 10.3%
- Good condition
- 2.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Metcalfe County posts a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- Top 6%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 78
- public highway bridges
- 1975
- 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.
Metcalfe County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Metcalfe County ranks #7 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.6%). Metcalfe County, Kentucky contains 78 public highway bridges. Roughly 10.3% are rated “Good,” 87.2% “Fair,” and 2.6% “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
10.3%
8 of 78 rated 7-9
Fair condition
87.2%
68 of 78 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2.6%
2 of 78 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#7 of 120
Among Kentucky counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 78 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 10.3% (8)
Fair 87.2% (68)
Poor 2.6% (2)
Metcalfe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 4,903 vehicle crossings a day
That is 4.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,452 crossings a day against 1,458 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 78 of 78 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
53.8% of Metcalfe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
42 of the 78 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 10.3% 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 83.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US-68 over CLAY LICK CREEK, built 1956, carries 4,096 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 2-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 4,903 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Metcalfe County's bridges were built
78 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 4
1920–1929
4 bridges
- 1930s 7
1930–1939
7 bridges
- 1940s 5
1940–1949
5 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
18 bridges
- 1980s 4
1980–1989
4 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
12 bridges
- 2000s 1
2000–2009
1 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
14 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 18 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1975) matches the Kentucky average (1978).
How Metcalfe County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Metcalfe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.6% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todd County | 80 | 16.3% | 76.3% | 7.5% | 1972 |
| Grant County | 79 | 55.7% | 38% | 6.3% | 1988 |
| Lyon County | 78 | 25.6% | 70.5% | 3.8% | 1972 |
| Metcalfe County (this page) | 78 | 10.3% | 87.2% | 2.6% | 1975 |
| Wolfe County | 77 | 54.5% | 41.6% | 3.9% | 1979 |
| Wayne County | 76 | 22.4% | 61.8% | 15.8% | 1978 |
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 Metcalfe 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 Metcalfe County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KY (78 bridges here).
- Winston County, AL · 78 bridges
- Marion County, FL · 78 bridges
- Bryan County, GA · 78 bridges
- Macon County, GA · 78 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1975 here).
- San Bernardino County, CA · avg 1975 · 1,422 bridges
- Lane County, OR · avg 1975 · 1,010 bridges
- Fulton County, GA · avg 1975 · 775 bridges
- Westmoreland County, PA · avg 1975 · 620 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.