County profile · official public datasets

Custer County, NE

303 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.4% rated Good, 33.7% Fair, 7.9% Poor.

303
Public bridges: 58.4%
Good condition: 7.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Custer County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

52nd
of 88 on Poor share: 7.9%
Poor-condition share: 303
public highway bridges: 1971
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.

Custer County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Custer County ranks #52 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 7.9%). Custer County, Nebraska contains 303 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.4% are rated “Good,” 33.7% “Fair,” and 7.9% “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

303

Public highway bridges in Custer County

Good condition

58.4%

177 of 303 rated 7-9

Fair condition

33.7%

102 of 303 rated 5-6

Poor condition

7.9%

24 of 303 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#52 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 303 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

58.4% (177)

Fair

33.7% (102)

Poor

7.9% (24)

Custer County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,015 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.8% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 7.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 42 crossings a day against 493 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 303 of 303 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

48.5% of Custer County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

147 of the 303 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 58.4% 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 41.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

FAS 1670 over SPRING CREEK, built 1963, carries 425 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 24-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 1,015 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

3
1920s

11
1930s

45
1940s

15
1950s

17
1960s

46
1970s

38
1980s

51
1990s

30
2000s

12
2010s

23
2020s

12

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 51 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 16.8% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1971, 6 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Custer County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 7.9% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1971 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 7 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Custer 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	313	47%	46.6%	6.4%	1977
Saline County	312	67.3%	24.7%	8%	1981
Custer County (this page)	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 Custer 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 Custer County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (303 bridges here).

Pottawatomie County, KS · 303 bridges
Callaway County, MO · 303 bridges
Sandusky County, OH · 303 bridges
Prince William County, VA · 303 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1971 here).

Wayne County, MI · avg 1971 · 1,026 bridges
Baltimore County, MD · avg 1971 · 783 bridges
Washington County, PA · avg 1971 · 655 bridges
Linn County, OR · avg 1971 · 566 bridges

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

All 303 Good 177 Fair 102 Poor 24

Good-condition bridges (177)

Sort:

Custer County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Custer County's Poor-condition bridges carry 1,015 vehicle crossings a day

48.5% of Custer County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 41.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Custer 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 (177)

ROAD 419

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US183

FAS 1725

FAS 1725

FAS 1725

FAS 1725

COLL 7405

COLL 7405

COLL 7405

COLL 7405

COLL 7405

COLL 7405

FAS 1855

FAS 1855

COLL 7407

TOWNSHIP ROAD

FAS 1660

FAS 1745

TOWNSHIP ROAD

FAS 1680

FAS 1680

FAS 1670

FAS 1670

COLL 7407

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COLL 7390

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY HIGHWAY

FAS 1743

FAS 1780

TOWNSHIP ROAD

N2

N2

N2

N2/N92

N2

N21

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

N40

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