County profile · official public datasets

Powell County, KY

110 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 39.1% rated Good, 59.1% Fair, 1.8% Poor.

110
Public bridges: 39.1%
Good condition: 1.8%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Powell County posts a top-5% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 3%
lowest Poor share in state: 1.8%
Poor-condition share: 110
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.

Powell County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Powell County ranks #4 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 1.8%). Powell County, Kentucky contains 110 public highway bridges. Roughly 39.1% are rated “Good,” 59.1% “Fair,” and 1.8% “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

110

Public highway bridges in Powell County

Good condition

39.1%

43 of 110 rated 7-9

Fair condition

59.1%

65 of 110 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1.8%

2 of 110 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#4 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 110 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

39.1% (43)

Fair

59.1% (65)

Poor

1.8% (2)

Powell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 679 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 1.8% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 340 crossings a day against 1,996 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 110 of 110 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

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

63 of the 110 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 39.1% 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 95.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-1184 over RED RIVER, built 1970, carries 646 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 679 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

2
1930s

3
1940s

3
1950s

10
1960s

44
1970s

6
1980s

9
1990s

16
2000s

8
2010s

4
2020s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 44 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 40% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1975) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Powell County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 1.8% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1975 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 5 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Powell County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Morgan County	114	50.9%	46.5%	2.6%	1981
Bourbon County	112	18.8%	78.6%	2.7%	1974
Leslie County	112	28.6%	58%	13.4%	1980
Powell County (this page)	110	39.1%	59.1%	1.8%	1975
Trigg County	109	39.4%	51.4%	9.2%	1980
Magoffin County	107	43.9%	53.3%	2.8%	1986

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (110 bridges here).

Lincoln County, AR · 110 bridges
Sharp County, AR · 110 bridges
Jerome County, ID · 110 bridges
Comanche County, KS · 110 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 110 Good 43 Fair 65 Poor 2

All bridges (110)

Sort:

Powell County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Powell County's Poor-condition bridges carry 679 vehicle crossings a day

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

One structure carries 95.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Powell 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 (110)

FRAMES BRANCH ROAD

Bolin Road

STANTON ROAD

KY-77

KY-9000

MILLSTONE ROAD Y

KY-1639

KY-1695

HATTON CREEK ROAD

BUSH CREEK ROAD

KY-11

KY-11

KY-15

KY-213

KY-615

KY-613

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

KY-9000

KY-2026

KY-1639

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

KY-9000

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

KY-9000

KY-77

NATURAL BRIDGE STA

KY-82

KY-9000

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

KY-9000

KY-615

KY-1057

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

KY-9000

KY-1057

KY-9000

KY-77

KY-11

KY-11

KY-613

KY-11

KY-9000

KY-599

KY-9000

KY-9000

BERT T COMBS-MOUNT

MILLKNOB ROAD

KY-615

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