Total bridges
252
Public highway bridges in Colfax County
County profile · official public datasets
Colfax County, NE
252 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 62.7% rated Good, 35.3% Fair, 2% Poor.
- 252
- Public bridges
- 62.7%
- Good condition
- 2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Colfax County pairs a top-quartile lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- Top 20%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 2%
- Poor-condition share
- 252
- 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.
Colfax County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Colfax County ranks #18 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2%). Colfax County, Nebraska contains 252 public highway bridges. Roughly 62.7% are rated “Good,” 35.3% “Fair,” and 2% “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
62.7%
158 of 252 rated 7-9
Fair condition
35.3%
89 of 252 rated 5-6
Poor condition
2%
5 of 252 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#18 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 252 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 62.7% (158)
Fair 35.3% (89)
Poor 2% (5)
Colfax County's Poor-condition bridges carry 160 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.2% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 32 crossings a day against 433 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 252 of 252 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
24.6% of Colfax County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
62 of the 252 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 62.7% 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 28.1% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
COUNTY ROAD Q over M FK MAPLE CREEK, built 1935, carries 45 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 5-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.
When Colfax County's bridges were built
252 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
29 bridges
- 1950s 7
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s 5
1960–1969
5 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
36 bridges
- 1980s 23
1980–1989
23 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
33 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
45 bridges
- 2010s
2010–2019
58 bridges
- 2020s 15
2020–2029
15 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 2010s, when 58 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 23% 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 Colfax County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Colfax County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1990 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 15 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richardson County | 258 | 41.9% | 44.6% | 13.6% | 1966 |
| Nuckolls County | 255 | 33.3% | 57.6% | 9% | 1979 |
| Colfax County (this page) | 252 | 62.7% | 35.3% | 2% | 1990 |
| Wayne County | 251 | 55% | 35.5% | 9.6% | 1978 |
| Scotts Bluff County | 250 | 64% | 30.8% | 5.2% | 1972 |
| Seward County | 244 | 66.4% | 25.8% | 7.8% | 1980 |
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 Colfax 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 Colfax County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (252 bridges here).
- Montgomery County, IN · 252 bridges
- Morgan County, IN · 252 bridges
- Harlan County, KY · 252 bridges
- Oxford County, ME · 252 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 (5)
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
1S 2.5E OF LEIGH, Colfax, NE
Built 1935 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY ROAD K
PoorOver: M FK MAPLE CREEK
5N OF ROGERS, Colfax, NE
Built 1935 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 40
COUNTY HIGHWAY O
PoorOver: E FK MAPLE CREEK
1.4W 9N ROGERS, Colfax, NE
Built 1910 Load: 0.0 t ADT: 45
COUNTY ROAD Q
PoorOver: M FK MAPLE CREEK
6.2S 1.5W OF HOWELLS, Colfax, NE
Built 1935 Load: 6.0 t ADT: 45
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
6.2S 4.1E OF HOWELLS, Colfax, NE
Built 1935 Load: 24.0 t ADT: 20
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.