Total bridges
58
Public highway bridges in Spencer County
County profile · official public datasets
Spencer County, KY
58 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 15.5% rated Good, 75.9% Fair, 8.6% Poor.
- 58
- Public bridges
- 15.5%
- Good condition
- 8.6%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Spencer County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- 82nd
- of 120 on Poor share
- 8.6%
- Poor-condition share
- 58
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- 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.
Spencer County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Spencer County ranks #82 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 8.6%). Spencer County, Kentucky contains 58 public highway bridges. Roughly 15.5% are rated “Good,” 75.9% “Fair,” and 8.6% “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.
Good condition
15.5%
9 of 58 rated 7-9
Fair condition
75.9%
44 of 58 rated 5-6
Poor condition
8.6%
5 of 58 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#82 of 120
Among Kentucky counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 58 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 15.5% (9)
Fair 75.9% (44)
Poor 8.6% (5)
Spencer County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5,849 vehicle crossings a day
That is 5.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 8.6% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,170 crossings a day against 979 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 58 of 58 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
32.8% of Spencer County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
19 of the 58 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 15.5% 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 68.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
KY 44 over PLUM CREEK, built 1932, carries 3,985 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 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 5,849 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Spencer County's bridges were built
58 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 3
1930–1939
3 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 4
1950–1959
4 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
6 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
9 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
13 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
6 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
6 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 13 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 22.4% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1981) matches the Kentucky average (1978).
How Spencer County compares with Kentucky's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Spencer County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 8.6% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 119 Kentucky counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woodford County | 60 | 26.7% | 65% | 8.3% | 1976 |
| Jessamine County | 58 | 24.1% | 74.1% | 1.7% | 1980 |
| Spencer County (this page) | 58 | 15.5% | 75.9% | 8.6% | 1981 |
| Green County | 57 | 59.6% | 28.1% | 12.3% | 1979 |
| Hart County | 57 | 43.9% | 54.4% | 1.8% | 1980 |
| Estill County | 56 | 37.5% | 51.8% | 10.7% | 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 Spencer 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 Spencer County, both outside Kentucky so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside KY (58 bridges here).
- Wrangell City and County, AK · 58 bridges
- Jeff Davis County, GA · 58 bridges
- Putnam County, GA · 58 bridges
- Union County, IN · 58 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
All bridges (58)
FEATHERBED HOLLOW
GoodOver: PLUM CREEK
0.1 MI E OF KY 1060, Spencer, KY
Built 2020 Load: 51.2 t ADT: 130
WASHBURN LN
GoodOver: ELK CREEK
150 FT W OF KY 55, Spencer, KY
Built 2021 Load: 56.1 t ADT: 155
KY 1319
GoodOver: PLUM CREEK
AT BULLITT CL, Spencer, KY
Built 2023 Load: 57.0 t ADT: 1,353
KY 652
PoorOver: TRIB TO SIMPSON CREEK
2.65 MI S OF KY 55, Spencer, KY
Built 1973 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 564
KY 652
PoorOver: SIMPSON CREEK
2.55 MI S OF KY 55, Spencer, KY
Built 1973 Load: 20.0 t ADT: 564
ROBERTS RD
PoorOver: ELK CREEK
0.1 MI S OF KY 1633, Spencer, KY
Built 1963 Load: 22.9 t ADT: 148
KY 44
PoorOver: PLUM CREEK
225 FT E OF KY 1060, Spencer, KY
Built 1932 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 3,985
KY 1795
PoorOver: BEECH CREEK
1.6 MI E OF KY 44, Spencer, KY
Built 1958 Load: 33.2 t ADT: 588
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.