Total bridges
70
Public highway bridges in Monroe County
County profile · official public datasets
Monroe County, KY
70 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 15.7% rated Good, 77.1% Fair, 7.1% Poor.
- 70
- Public bridges
- 15.7%
- Good condition
- 7.1%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Monroe County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 47%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 7.1%
- Poor-condition share
- 70
- public highway bridges
- 1965
- 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.
Monroe County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Monroe County ranks #56 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.1%). Monroe County, Kentucky contains 70 public highway bridges. Roughly 15.7% are rated “Good,” 77.1% “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.
Good condition
15.7%
11 of 70 rated 7-9
Fair condition
77.1%
54 of 70 rated 5-6
Poor condition
7.1%
5 of 70 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#56 of 120
Among Kentucky counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 70 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 15.7% (11)
Fair 77.1% (54)
Poor 7.1% (5)
Monroe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 3,403 vehicle crossings a day
That is 5.2% 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 681 crossings a day against 1,355 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 70 of 70 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
65.7% of Monroe County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
46 of the 70 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 15.7% 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 68.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
KY-63 over LONG BRANCH, built 1928, carries 2,319 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 3,403 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Monroe County's bridges were built
70 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 6
1920–1929
6 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
12 bridges
- 1940s 3
1940–1949
3 bridges
- 1950s
1950–1959
19 bridges
- 1960s 4
1960–1969
4 bridges
- 1970s 3
1970–1979
3 bridges
- 1980s 2
1980–1989
2 bridges
- 1990s 6
1990–1999
6 bridges
- 2000s 7
2000–2009
7 bridges
- 2010s 6
2010–2019
6 bridges
- 2020s 2
2020–2029
2 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 19 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 27.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 13 years older than the Kentucky average of 1978.
How Monroe County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Monroe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.1% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 12 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlisle County | 74 | 35.1% | 62.2% | 2.7% | 1973 |
| Hancock County | 70 | 8.6% | 88.6% | 2.9% | 1975 |
| Martin County | 70 | 28.6% | 58.6% | 12.9% | 1985 |
| Monroe County (this page) | 70 | 15.7% | 77.1% | 7.1% | 1965 |
| Carroll County | 68 | 13.2% | 75% | 11.8% | 1970 |
| Garrard County | 67 | 25.4% | 68.7% | 6% | 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 Monroe 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 Monroe County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KY (70 bridges here).
- Jefferson County, FL · 70 bridges
- Jasper County, GA · 70 bridges
- Treutlen County, GA · 70 bridges
- Turner County, GA · 70 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1965 here).
- Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
- Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
- Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
- Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Fair-condition bridges (54)
KY-1366
FairOver: WHITE OAK BRANCH
4.0 MI WEST OF JCT KY 63, Monroe, KY
Built 1952 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 1,230
KY-1366
FairOver: TRIB-E.FK. BARREN RVR
3.7 MI W OF JCT KY 100, Monroe, KY
Built 1971 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 1,230
PAIGE ST
FairOver: TOWN CREEK
.1 MI E OF KY 163, Monroe, KY
Built 1963 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 752
Soards Rd.
FairOver: PETER CREEK
2.35 miles East of Ky 249, Monroe, KY
Built 2002 Load: 97.2 t ADT: 31
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.