County profile · official public datasets

Owsley County, KY

55 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 38.2% rated Good, 58.2% Fair, 3.6% Poor.

55
Public bridges: 38.2%
Good condition: 3.6%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 15%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.6%
Poor-condition share: 55
public highway bridges: 1982
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.

Owsley County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Owsley County ranks #18 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.6%). Owsley County, Kentucky contains 55 public highway bridges. Roughly 38.2% are rated “Good,” 58.2% “Fair,” and 3.6% “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

Public highway bridges in Owsley County

Good condition

38.2%

21 of 55 rated 7-9

Fair condition

58.2%

32 of 55 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.6%

2 of 55 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#18 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 55 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

38.2% (21)

Fair

58.2% (32)

Poor

3.6% (2)

Owsley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,260 vehicle crossings a day

That is 5.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 630 crossings a day against 341 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 55 of 55 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

38.2% of Owsley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

21 of the 55 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 38.2% 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 72.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

OLD KY-11 over BUCK CREEK, built 1926, carries 909 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 1,260 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

1
1930s

1
1940s

4
1950s

9
1960s

5
1970s

7
1980s

2
1990s

11
2000s

5
2010s

7
2020s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 11 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1982) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Owsley County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.6% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1982 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Owsley County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Green County	57	59.6%	28.1%	12.3%	1979
Estill County	56	37.5%	51.8%	10.7%	1977
Gallatin County	55	21.8%	74.5%	3.6%	1971
Owsley County (this page)	55	38.2%	58.2%	3.6%	1982
Larue County	54	55.6%	37%	7.4%	1981
Owen County	54	18.5%	77.8%	3.7%	1975

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (55 bridges here).

Park County, CO · 55 bridges
Dixie County, FL · 55 bridges
Winnebago County, IA · 55 bridges
Logan County, KS · 55 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1982 here).

Oklahoma County, OK · avg 1982 · 1,216 bridges
Jackson County, MO · avg 1982 · 930 bridges
Milwaukee County, WI · avg 1982 · 893 bridges
Champaign County, IL · avg 1982 · 727 bridges

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

All 55 Good 21 Fair 32 Poor 2

All bridges (55)

Sort:

Owsley County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Owsley County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,260 vehicle crossings a day

38.2% of Owsley County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 72.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Owsley 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 (55)

RIGHT FORK BUFFALO

SMITH FORK ROAD

RONE FORK BRANCH R

KY-1350

RIGHT FORK BUFFALO

CRICKET BRANCH ROA

Laurel Fork Road

KY-847

KY-1411

Little Sturgeon Cr

Campbell Road

KY-1350

Wolfe Creek Road

KY-11

KY-28

McHaffey Rd.

KY-28

KY-11

KY-11

KY-30

LOWER WOLFE CREEK

KY-1717

KY-1768

APPLEGATE ROAD

KY-3346

Hacker Br. CR-1136

KY-3536

KY-2025

CAWOOD ROAD

KY-2024

KY-708

KY-11

RIGHT FORK BUFFALO

Joe Dunn Lane

KY-30

KY-3630

CRANE FORK ROAD

KY-28

KY-577

KY-1411

KY-1717

KY-1717

KY-2024

COW CREEK CHURCH R

KY-1503

DEAN ROAD

KY 30

Tackett Rd

KY 3347

CHADWELL ROAD

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