County profile · official public datasets

Cedar County, NE

313 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 47% rated Good, 46.6% Fair, 6.4% Poor.

313
Public bridges: 47%
Good condition: 6.4%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Cedar County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

46th
of 88 on Poor share: 6.4%
Poor-condition share: 313
public highway bridges: 1977
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.

Cedar County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Cedar County ranks #46 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 6.4%). Cedar County, Nebraska contains 313 public highway bridges. Roughly 47% are rated “Good,” 46.6% “Fair,” and 6.4% “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

313

Public highway bridges in Cedar County

Good condition

47%

147 of 313 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.6%

146 of 313 rated 5-6

Poor condition

6.4%

20 of 313 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#46 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 313 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

47% (147)

Fair

46.6% (146)

Poor

6.4% (20)

Cedar County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,355 vehicle crossings a day

That is 6.9% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 6.4% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry more traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 518 crossings a day against 565 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 313 of 313 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

42.2% of Cedar County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

132 of the 313 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 47% 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 33.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US81 over NORWEGIAN BOW CREEK TRIB, built 1945, carries 3,475 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 20-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 10,355 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

54
1940s

7
1950s

30
1960s

17
1970s

44
1980s

39
1990s

46
2000s

38
2010s

29
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 54 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 17.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Nebraska average (1977).

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Cedar County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 6.4% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1977 is in line with the group.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Cedar County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Knox County	329	60.5%	36.5%	3%	1981
Cedar County (this page)	313	47%	46.6%	6.4%	1977
Saline County	312	67.3%	24.7%	8%	1981
Custer County	303	58.4%	33.7%	7.9%	1971
Madison County	302	36.4%	55.3%	8.3%	1981
Dawson County	300	68%	28.3%	3.7%	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 Cedar 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 Cedar County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (313 bridges here).

Natchitoches County, LA · 313 bridges
Linn County, MO · 313 bridges
Jackson County, AL · 314 bridges
Cloud County, KS · 314 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1977 here).

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 313 Good 147 Fair 146 Poor 20

All bridges (313)

Sort:

Cedar County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Cedar County's Poor-condition bridges carry 10,355 vehicle crossings a day

42.2% of Cedar County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 33.6% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Cedar 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

All bridges (313)

COLL 7801

FAS 3180

COUNTY HIGHWAY

554TH AVE

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7801

COLL 7805

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N15

COLL 7722

COUNTY HIGHWAY

FAS 2870

COLL 7792

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

WAKEFIELD STREET

ALMA STREET

ELM STREET

OAK STREET

DOUGLAS STREET

N12

US20

US81

US81

US81

N84

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N15

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US20/N15

COLL 7657

COLL 7657

556TH AVE

558TH AVE

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

869TH RD

COUNTY HIGHWAY

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