Total bridges
19
Public highway bridges in Blaine County
County profile · official public datasets
Blaine County, NE
19 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 57.9% rated Good, 31.6% Fair, 10.5% Poor.
- 19
- Public bridges
- 57.9%
- Good condition
- 10.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Blaine County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- 69th
- of 88 on Poor share
- 10.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 19
- public highway bridges
- 1990
- 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.
Blaine County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Blaine County ranks #69 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 10.5%). Blaine County, Nebraska contains 19 public highway bridges. Roughly 57.9% are rated “Good,” 31.6% “Fair,” and 10.5% “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.
Good condition
57.9%
11 of 19 rated 7-9
Fair condition
31.6%
6 of 19 rated 5-6
Poor condition
10.5%
2 of 19 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#69 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 19 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 57.9% (11)
Fair 31.6% (6)
Poor 10.5% (2)
Blaine County's Poor-condition bridges carry 14 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 10.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 7 crossings a day against 86 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 19 of 19 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
31.6% of Blaine County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
6 of the 19 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 57.9% 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 71.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
RAILROD ST over MIDDLE LOUP RIVER, built 1972, carries 10 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 14 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Blaine County's bridges were built
19 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 1
1930–1939
1 bridges
- 1950s 1
1950–1959
1 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
2 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
2 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
3 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
2 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 5 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 5 to 14 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1990, 13 years newer than the Nebraska average of 1977.
How Blaine County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Blaine County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 10.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is 13 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield County | 24 | 58.3% | 37.5% | 4.2% | 1978 |
| Keya Paha County | 23 | 43.5% | 43.5% | 13% | 1971 |
| Loup County | 20 | 50% | 35% | 15% | 1977 |
| Thomas County | 19 | 57.9% | 42.1% | 0% | 1989 |
| Blaine County (this page) | 19 | 57.9% | 31.6% | 10.5% | 1990 |
| Rock County | 14 | 42.9% | 50% | 7.1% | 1968 |
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 Blaine 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 Blaine County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (19 bridges here).
- Gilpin County, CO · 19 bridges
- Foster County, ND · 19 bridges
- Aguada County, PR · 19 bridges
- Gurabo County, PR · 19 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1990 here).
- Maricopa County, AZ · avg 1990 · 2,847 bridges
- Tarrant County, TX · avg 1990 · 2,617 bridges
- Fairfax County, VA · avg 1990 · 751 bridges
- Guilford County, NC · avg 1990 · 736 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (2)
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.