County profile · official public datasets

Boyd County, NE

64 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 81.3% rated Good, 14.1% Fair, 4.7% Poor.

64
Public bridges: 81.3%
Good condition: 4.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Boyd County pairs a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.

Top 41%
lowest Poor share in state: 4.7%
Poor-condition share: 64
public highway bridges: 1987
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.

Boyd County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Boyd County ranks #36 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.7%). Boyd County, Nebraska contains 64 public highway bridges. Roughly 81.3% are rated “Good,” 14.1% “Fair,” and 4.7% “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 Boyd County

Good condition

81.3%

52 of 64 rated 7-9

Fair condition

14.1%

9 of 64 rated 5-6

Poor condition

4.7%

3 of 64 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#36 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 64 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

81.3% (52)

Fair

14.1% (9)

Poor

4.7% (3)

Boyd County's Poor-condition bridges carry 100 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 33 crossings a day against 201 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 64 of 64 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

26.6% of Boyd County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

17 of the 64 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 81.3% 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.

One structure carries 60% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

NORDIC ROAD over PONCA CREEK, built 1935, carries 60 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 100 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

5
1940s

5
1950s

6
1960s

1
1970s

1
1980s

4
1990s

18
2000s

10
2010s

8
2020s

6

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 18 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 28.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1987, 10 years newer than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Boyd County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.7% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1987 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is 17 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Boyd County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Kearney County	71	63.4%	35.2%	1.4%	1978
Boyd County (this page)	64	81.3%	14.1%	4.7%	1987
Sheridan County	63	85.7%	14.3%	0%	1965
Gosper County	62	67.7%	22.6%	9.7%	1977
Cherry County	57	42.1%	38.6%	19.3%	1959
Brown County	56	42.9%	50%	7.1%	1972

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (64 bridges here).

Southeast Fairbanks County, AK · 64 bridges
Delta County, CO · 64 bridges
Sedgwick County, CO · 64 bridges
Hancock County, GA · 64 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1987 here).

St. Louis County, MO · avg 1987 · 912 bridges
Ellis County, TX · avg 1987 · 691 bridges
St. Louis County, MN · avg 1987 · 663 bridges
Palm Beach County, FL · avg 1987 · 610 bridges

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

All 64 Good 52 Fair 9 Poor 3

Good-condition bridges (52)

Sort:

Boyd County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Boyd County's Poor-condition bridges carry 100 vehicle crossings a day

26.6% of Boyd County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 60% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Boyd 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 (52)

CEDAR ROAD

FAS 2135

N12

N12

N12

N12

477TH AVE

465TH ROAD

COLL 7534

TOWNSHIP ROAD

474TH ROAD

470TH AVE

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COLL 7530

US281/N12

481ST AVE

897 RD

900TH ROAD

908TH RD

908TH RD

504 AVE

897TH RD

PONCA STREET

N12

N12

N12

904TH RD

4TH ST/FAS 2330

TOWNSHIP ROAD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COLL 7513

902 ROAD

COLL 7519

FAS 2335

908TH ROAD

896TH RD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

N12

N12

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N12

N12

906TH RD

PRAIRIE ST

907TH ROAD

COLL 7513

479TH AVE

COLL 7532

CNTY HIGHWAY/7532

Related