County profile · official public datasets

Ohio County, KY

227 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 8.4% rated Good, 85% Fair, 6.6% Poor.

227
Public bridges: 8.4%
Good condition: 6.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Ohio 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 43%
lowest Poor share in state: 6.6%
Poor-condition share: 227
public highway bridges: 1970
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.

Ohio County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Ohio County ranks #52 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.6%). Ohio County, Kentucky contains 227 public highway bridges. Roughly 8.4% are rated “Good,” 85% “Fair,” and 6.6% “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.

Total bridges

227

Public highway bridges in Ohio County

Good condition

8.4%

19 of 227 rated 7-9

Fair condition

85%

193 of 227 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.6%

15 of 227 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#52 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 227 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

8.4% (19)

Fair

85% (193)

Poor

6.6% (15)

Ohio County's Poor-condition bridges carry 17,825 vehicle crossings a day

That is 4.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,188 crossings a day against 501 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 227 of 227 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

57.3% of Ohio County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

130 of the 227 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 8.4% 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 42.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

WK-9001 over INDIAN CAMP CREEK, built 1963, carries 7,571 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 17,825 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

21
1930s

27
1940s

8
1950s

17
1960s

25
1970s

44
1980s

23
1990s

32
2000s

8
2010s

17
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 44 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1970, 8 years older than the Kentucky average of 1978.

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Ohio County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.6% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1970 against a peer-group mean of 1976 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Ohio County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Hopkins County	251	10.4%	80.5%	9.2%	1967
Ohio County (this page)	227	8.4%	85%	6.6%	1970
Hardin County	223	47.1%	48.4%	4.5%	1982
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

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (227 bridges here).

Yell County, AR · 227 bridges
McHenry County, IL · 227 bridges
LaPorte County, IN · 227 bridges
Rush County, IN · 227 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1970 here).

Hamilton County, OH · avg 1970 · 783 bridges
Yavapai County, AZ · avg 1970 · 543 bridges
Garfield County, OK · avg 1970 · 504 bridges
San Luis Obispo County, CA · avg 1970 · 401 bridges

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

All 227 Good 19 Fair 193 Poor 15

Fair-condition bridges (193)

Sort:

Ohio County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Ohio County's Poor-condition bridges carry 17,825 vehicle crossings a day

57.3% of Ohio County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 42.5% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Ohio 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 (193)

US-231

WESTERN KENTUCKY P

WK-9001

KY 505

KY-69

KY-878

US-231

WN-9007

KY-269

KY-505

MUD COLLEGE RD

KY-505

KY-1245

US-231

MORGANTOWN RD

HALLS CREEK RD

KY-85

I-165

WN-9007

SUNNYDALE RD

KY-69

KY-273

KY-273

KY-505

MCGRADY CREEK RD

FIRST ST

ZION CHURCH RD

RUMMAGE RD

US-231

WILLIAM H. NATCHER

WN-9007

KY-1414

KY-1245

US-231

Davis Rd.

COMBS BRIDGE RD

KY-6117

Denton Slack Rd.

KY 54

WN-9007

Mt. Pleasant Rd.

McGrady Creek Rd.

US-62

Related