County profile · official public datasets

Perry County, KY

176 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 42% rated Good, 53.4% Fair, 4.5% Poor.

176
Public bridges: 42%
Good condition: 4.5%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Perry County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 26%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.5%
Poor-condition share: 176
public highway bridges: 1987
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.

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Perry County ranks #31 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.5%). Perry County, Kentucky contains 176 public highway bridges. Roughly 42% are rated “Good,” 53.4% “Fair,” and 4.5% “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

176

Public highway bridges in Perry County

Good condition

42%

74 of 176 rated 7-9

Fair condition

53.4%

94 of 176 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.5%

8 of 176 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#31 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 176 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

42% (74)

Fair

53.4% (94)

Poor

4.5% (8)

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,846 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 356 crossings a day against 1,650 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 176 of 176 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

38.6% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

68 of the 176 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 42% 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 65.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-80 over RT. FK. BIG CREEK, built 1928, carries 1,875 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 2,846 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

3
1930s

4
1940s

8
1950s

18
1960s

22
1970s

21
1980s

13
1990s

22
2000s

9
2010s

21
2020s

35

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2020s, when 35 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.9% of those with a recorded year. Those records fall in the current decade of the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1987, 9 years newer than the Kentucky average of 1978.

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Perry County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.5% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1987 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 7 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Perry County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Carter County	189	21.2%	72.5%	6.3%	1974
Henderson County	184	8.2%	87%	4.9%	1978
Scott County	183	28.4%	61.7%	9.8%	1985
Pulaski County	182	19.8%	74.7%	5.5%	1980
Letcher County	179	36.3%	52.5%	11.2%	1981
Perry County (this page)	176	42%	53.4%	4.5%	1987

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (176 bridges here).

Des Moines County, IA · 176 bridges
Winston County, MS · 176 bridges
Paulding County, OH · 176 bridges
Spink County, SD · 176 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1987 here).

St. Louis County, MO · avg 1987 · 912 bridges
Ellis County, TX · avg 1987 · 691 bridges
St. Louis County, MN · avg 1987 · 663 bridges
Palm Beach County, FL · avg 1987 · 610 bridges

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

All 176 Good 74 Fair 94 Poor 8

Good-condition bridges (74)

Sort:

Perry County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Perry County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,846 vehicle crossings a day

38.6% of Perry County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 65.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Perry 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

Good-condition bridges (74)

KY-476

Twin Oaks

Bark Camp Br Rd

Dan Lane

Toms Branch Road

KY 1096

KY-1095

Tranquility Lane

KY 1166

KY-1166

HR-9006

KY-550

KY-3351

KY 1146

Bob Hollow Road

KY-550

Hays Lane

KY1096

Napier Farm Road

Lower Honeysuckle

Owens Branch Road

Holliday Lane

Cruzzie Drive

Leatherwood sch

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