County profile · official public datasets

Box Butte County, NE

30 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 93.3% rated Good, 6.7% Fair, 0% Poor.

30
Public bridges: 93.3%
Good condition: 0%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Box Butte County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 8%
lowest Poor share in state: 0%
Poor-condition share: 30
public highway bridges: 1967
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.

Box Butte County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Box Butte County ranks #7 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Box Butte County, Nebraska contains 30 public highway bridges. Roughly 93.3% are rated “Good,” 6.7% “Fair,” and 0% “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 Box Butte County

Good condition

93.3%

28 of 30 rated 7-9

Fair condition

6.7%

2 of 30 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0 of 30 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#7 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 30 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

93.3% (28)

Fair

6.7% (2)

Poor

0% (0)

70% of Box Butte County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

21 of the 30 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 93.3% 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.

1930s

2
1940s

7
1950s

4
1960s

6
1970s

3
1980s

1
1990s

4
2000s

3

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1940s, when 7 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 75 to 84 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1967, 10 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

How Box Butte County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Box Butte County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1967 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 8 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Box Butte County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Banner County	36	77.8%	22.2%	0%	1972
Sioux County	36	58.3%	38.9%	2.8%	1972
Chase County	33	87.9%	9.1%	3%	1988
Box Butte County (this page)	30	93.3%	6.7%	0%	1967
Garden County	29	79.3%	20.7%	0%	1964
Garfield County	24	58.3%	37.5%	4.2%	1978

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 Box Butte 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 Box Butte County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (30 bridges here).

Nome County, AK · 30 bridges
Bleckley County, GA · 30 bridges
Lake County, MI · 30 bridges
Sargent County, ND · 30 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1967 here).

Los Angeles County, CA · avg 1967 · 3,547 bridges
Allegheny County, PA · avg 1967 · 1,294 bridges
Sonoma County, CA · avg 1967 · 609 bridges
Merced County, CA · avg 1967 · 528 bridges

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

All 30 Good 28 Fair 2 Poor 0

Good-condition bridges (28)

Sort:

Box Butte County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

70% of Box Butte County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

How Box Butte County compares with Nebraska'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 (28)

ROAD 55

ROAD 70

ROAD 70

OTOE ROAD

JEFFERSON ROAD

ROAD 69

MADISON ROAD

ROAD 54

DODGE ROAD

N2

N2

N2

N87

US385

US385

COUNTY ROAD

US385

US385

US385

L07E N2 TO N87

FAU 6250/KANSAS ST

N2

N71

N87

N87

10TH STREET

KANSAS ST/FAU 6250

N71

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