County profile · official public datasets

Montgomery County, KY

74 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 23% rated Good, 66.2% Fair, 10.8% Poor.

74
Public bridges: 23%
Good condition: 10.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

99th
of 120 on Poor share: 10.8%
Poor-condition share: 74
public highway bridges: 1978
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.

Montgomery County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Montgomery County ranks #99 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.8%). Montgomery County, Kentucky contains 74 public highway bridges. Roughly 23% are rated “Good,” 66.2% “Fair,” and 10.8% “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

Public highway bridges in Montgomery County

Good condition

23%

17 of 74 rated 7-9

Fair condition

66.2%

49 of 74 rated 5-6

Poor condition

10.8%

8 of 74 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#99 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 74 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

23% (17)

Fair

66.2% (49)

Poor

10.8% (8)

Montgomery County's Poor-condition bridges carry 18,290 vehicle crossings a day

That is 8.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 2,286 crossings a day against 1,409 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 74 of 74 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

39.2% of Montgomery County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

29 of the 74 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 23% 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 69.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

I-64 over PREWITT-GRASSY LICK RD, built 1960, carries 12,764 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 8-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 18,290 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

3
1940s

3
1950s

9
1960s

12
1970s

7
1980s

16
1990s

13
2000s

8
2010s

2
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 16 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 21.6% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Montgomery County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.8% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Montgomery County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Wolfe County	77	54.5%	41.6%	3.9%	1979
Wayne County	76	22.4%	61.8%	15.8%	1978
McLean County	75	8%	81.3%	10.7%	1963
Mercer County	75	32%	61.3%	6.7%	1982
Carlisle County	74	35.1%	62.2%	2.7%	1973
Montgomery County (this page)	74	23%	66.2%	10.8%	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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (74 bridges here).

Clinch County, GA · 74 bridges
Decatur County, GA · 74 bridges
Hart County, GA · 74 bridges
Wright County, MN · 74 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1978 here).

Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges

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

All 74 Good 17 Fair 49 Poor 8

Fair-condition bridges (49)

Sort:

Montgomery County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Montgomery County's Poor-condition bridges carry 18,290 vehicle crossings a day

39.2% of Montgomery County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 69.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Montgomery 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

Fair-condition bridges (49)

LONG BRANCH RD

KY-1050

KY 713

KY-713

KY-3363

KY-213

KY-1331

PREWITT-GRASSY RD

GRASSY LICK ROAD

KY-1991

SOUTH QUEEN STREET

CECIL ROAD

FROGG PIKE

US-460

KY-11

US-460

TAPP RD

PREWITT-GRASSY RD

US-460

KY-11

KY-537

KY-646

EAST HIGH STREET

US 460

KY-213

KY-3362

KY-1050

HARPERS RIDGE RD

LOWER SPRUCE RD

US-60

I-64

US-60

TENNEY AVE

STEPSTONE RD

CHASE LANE

US 460 & KY 11

ROGERS MILL RD

STEPSTONE RD

I-64 NC

KY 11 AND US 460

ROGERS MILL RD

GRASSY LICK ROAD

MCCORMICK RD

STEPSTONE RD

KY-713

KY-1991

KY-686

I-64

I-64

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