County profile · official public datasets

Chase County, NE

33 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 87.9% rated Good, 9.1% Fair, 3% Poor.

33
Public bridges: 87.9%
Good condition: 3%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Chase 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 31%
lowest Poor share in state: 3%
Poor-condition share: 33
public highway bridges: 1988
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.

Chase County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Chase County ranks #27 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3%). Chase County, Nebraska contains 33 public highway bridges. Roughly 87.9% are rated “Good,” 9.1% “Fair,” and 3% “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 Chase County

Good condition

87.9%

29 of 33 rated 7-9

Fair condition

9.1%

3 of 33 rated 5-6

Poor condition

1 of 33 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#27 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 33 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

87.9% (29)

Fair

9.1% (3)

Poor

3% (1)

Chase County's Poor-condition bridges carry 160 vehicle crossings a day

That is 1.4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 160 crossings a day against 342 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 33 of 33 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

30.3% of Chase County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

10 of the 33 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 87.9% 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 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COLL 7237 over SPRING CREEK, built 1963, carries 160 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 160 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

1
1940s

1
1950s

4
1960s

2
1970s

3
1980s

2
1990s

4
2000s

11
2010s

5

What this shows Construction peaked in the 2000s, when 11 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.3% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 15 to 24 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1988, 11 years newer than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Chase County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1988 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is 18 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Chase County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Hayes County	41	56.1%	29.3%	14.6%	1977
Banner County	36	77.8%	22.2%	0%	1972
Sioux County	36	58.3%	38.9%	2.8%	1972
Chase County (this page)	33	87.9%	9.1%	3%	1988
Box Butte County	30	93.3%	6.7%	0%	1967
Garden County	29	79.3%	20.7%	0%	1964

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (33 bridges here).

Lee County, GA · 33 bridges
Greeley County, KS · 33 bridges
Calvert County, MD · 33 bridges
Grand Traverse County, MI · 33 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1988 here).

Travis County, TX · avg 1988 · 1,544 bridges
Grant County, OK · avg 1988 · 476 bridges
Loudoun County, VA · avg 1988 · 442 bridges
Licking County, OH · avg 1988 · 439 bridges

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

All 33 Good 29 Fair 3 Poor 1

All bridges (33)

Sort:

COUNTY HIGHWAY

Fair

Over: FRENCHMAN CREEK

4.8W OF WAUNETA, Chase, NE

Built 1990 Load: 35.0 t ADT: 40

STATE HIGHWAY 61

Fair

Over: Enders Dam Spillway

2.6 mi S-SE of Enders, Chase, NE

Built 1948 Load: 35.1 t ADT: 150

US6

Fair

Over: SAND CREEK

5.5W IMPERIAL, Chase, NE

Chase County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Chase County's Poor-condition bridges carry 160 vehicle crossings a day

30.3% of Chase County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Chase 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 (33)

COUNTY HIGHWAY

STATE HIGHWAY 61

US6

FAS 1325

COLL 7225

COLL 7237

COLL 7227

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N61

N61

S15A CHAMPION SPUR

S15A CHAMPION SPUR

ARAPHO AVE/FAS1315

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

WICHITA STREET

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7237

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US6

FARM DRIVE

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7237

FAS 1280

COUNTY HIGHWAY

343 AVE

COLL 7227

COLL 7237

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