County profile · official public datasets

Wolfe County, KY

77 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 54.5% rated Good, 41.6% Fair, 3.9% Poor.

77
Public bridges: 54.5%
Good condition: 3.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 20%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.9%
Poor-condition share: 77
public highway bridges: 1979
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.

Wolfe County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Wolfe County ranks #24 of 120 Kentucky counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.9%). Wolfe County, Kentucky contains 77 public highway bridges. Roughly 54.5% are rated “Good,” 41.6% “Fair,” and 3.9% “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 Wolfe County

Good condition

54.5%

42 of 77 rated 7-9

Fair condition

41.6%

32 of 77 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.9%

3 of 77 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#24 of 120

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

Condition distribution

Share of 77 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

54.5% (42)

Fair

41.6% (32)

Poor

3.9% (3)

Wolfe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 381 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 127 crossings a day against 1,284 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 77 of 77 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

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

40 of the 77 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 54.5% 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 40.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

KY-1812 over BETTS BRANCH, built 1927, carries 154 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 381 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

1
1950s

5
1960s

26
1970s

8
1980s

1
1990s

11
2000s

6
2010s

12
2020s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1960s, when 26 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 55 to 64 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1979) matches the Kentucky average (1978).

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

The 5 Kentucky counties nearest Wolfe County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.9% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1979 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Wolfe County and the 5 Kentucky counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Grant County	79	55.7%	38%	6.3%	1988
Lyon County	78	25.6%	70.5%	3.8%	1972
Metcalfe County	78	10.3%	87.2%	2.6%	1975
Wolfe County (this page)	77	54.5%	41.6%	3.9%	1979
Wayne County	76	22.4%	61.8%	15.8%	1978
McLean County	75	8%	81.3%	10.7%	1963

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside KY (77 bridges here).

Clear Creek County, CO · 77 bridges
Liberty County, FL · 77 bridges
Appling County, GA · 77 bridges
Baldwin County, GA · 77 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside KY (1979 here).

Pima County, AZ · avg 1979 · 1,150 bridges
Spartanburg County, SC · avg 1979 · 638 bridges
McPherson County, KS · avg 1979 · 586 bridges
Madison County, IL · avg 1979 · 523 bridges

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

All 77 Good 42 Fair 32 Poor 3

Fair-condition bridges (32)

Sort:

Wolfe County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Wolfe County's Poor-condition bridges carry 381 vehicle crossings a day

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

One structure carries 40.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Wolfe 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

Fair-condition bridges (32)

KY 191

KY 746

KY-2488

KY-1261

KY-715

KY-9009

KY-15

KY-1812

KY-1812

KY-15

KY-15

KY-9009

KY 9000

KY 9000

KY-1419

KY 746

GREENBRIAR BRANCH

KY-1953

KY-9009

KY-9009

KY-15

KY 746

KY-9009

RICE RD

KY-15

KY-15

KY 1653

KY-9009

LANDSAW JOHNSON FO

KY-9009

KY-9009

KY-191

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