County profile · official public datasets

Owen County, KY

54 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 18.5% rated Good, 77.8% Fair, 3.7% Poor.

54
Public bridges: 18.5%
Good condition: 3.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Owen County posts a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.

Top 17%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.7%
Poor-condition share: 54
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.

Owen County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Owen County ranks #20 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.7%). Owen County, Kentucky contains 54 public highway bridges. Roughly 18.5% are rated “Good,” 77.8% “Fair,” and 3.7% “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

Public highway bridges in Owen County

Good condition

18.5%

10 of 54 rated 7-9

Fair condition

77.8%

42 of 54 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.7%

2 of 54 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#20 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 54 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

18.5% (10)

Fair

77.8% (42)

Poor

3.7% (2)

Owen County's Poor-condition bridges carry 412 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 206 crossings a day against 673 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 54 of 54 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

51.9% of Owen County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

28 of the 54 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 18.5% 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 62.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-325 over LITTLE TWIN CREEK, built 1986, carries 256 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 412 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

3
1940s

8
1950s

10
1960s

5
1970s

4
1980s

5
1990s

8
2000s

1
2010s

9
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1950s, when 10 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 18.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 65 to 74 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1975) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Owen County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.7% Poor share is the 3rd-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.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Owen County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Estill County	56	37.5%	51.8%	10.7%	1977
Gallatin County	55	21.8%	74.5%	3.6%	1971
Owsley County	55	38.2%	58.2%	3.6%	1982
Larue County	54	55.6%	37%	7.4%	1981
Owen County (this page)	54	18.5%	77.8%	3.7%	1975
Elliott County	53	11.3%	73.6%	15.1%	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 Owen 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 Owen County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (54 bridges here).

Rio Blanco County, CO · 54 bridges
Brantley County, GA · 54 bridges
Jones County, GA · 54 bridges
Crawford County, MI · 54 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.

All 54 Good 10 Fair 42 Poor 2

All bridges (54)

Sort:

Owen County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Owen County's Poor-condition bridges carry 412 vehicle crossings a day

51.9% of Owen County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 62.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Owen 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

All bridges (54)

CANEY CREEK RD

KY-607

KY-3215

KY-355

KY-3215

KY-845

NATLEE SLATIN RD

KY-355

KY-607

KY-227

NEW LIBERTY SPARTA

KY-1883

KY-1883

KY-3096

KY-330

NATLEE SLATIN RD

KY-368

KY-1761

KY-368

KY-3523

OLD BEECHWOOD RD

OLD OWENTON-GEORGE

BEVERLY LN

Perry Park Rd

OLD COLUMBUS RD

KY-3102

KY-368

KY-1316

KY-330

KY-607

KY-368

KY-3549

KY-36

KY-227

KY-3549

BIG TWIN CREEK RD

US-127

BIG TWIN CREEK RD

BUCKS RUN RD

KY-607

KY-355

KY-355

KY 1287

US-127

KY-845

KY-1669

PLEASANT GROVE RD

OLD COLUMBUS RD

US-127

OLD COLUMBUS RD

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