County profile · official public datasets

Dawes County, NE

91 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 67% rated Good, 22% Fair, 11% Poor.

91
Public bridges: 67%
Good condition: 11%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Dawes 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.

70th
of 88 on Poor share: 11%
Poor-condition share: 91
public highway bridges: 1965
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.

Dawes County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Dawes County ranks #70 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 11%). Dawes County, Nebraska contains 91 public highway bridges. Roughly 67% are rated “Good,” 22% “Fair,” and 11% “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 Dawes County

Good condition

67%

61 of 91 rated 7-9

Fair condition

22%

20 of 91 rated 5-6

Poor condition

11%

10 of 91 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#70 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 91 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

67% (61)

Fair

22% (20)

Poor

11% (10)

Dawes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 485 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 11% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 49 crossings a day against 1,098 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 91 of 91 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

58.2% of Dawes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

53 of the 91 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 67% 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 46.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

S23A WHITNEY SPUR over WHITE RIVER, built 1937, carries 225 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 10-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 485 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

27
1940s

3
1950s

14
1960s

9
1970s

5
1980s

7
1990s

17
2000s

5
2010s

3
2020s

1

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 27 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 12 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Dawes County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 11% Poor share is the 5th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1971 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Dawes County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Polk County	94	57.4%	30.9%	11.7%	1975
Harlan County	92	63%	27.2%	9.8%	1969
Keith County	91	76.9%	23.1%	0%	1972
Morrill County	91	72.5%	27.5%	0%	1969
Dawes County (this page)	91	67%	22%	11%	1965
Kimball County	88	70.5%	28.4%	1.1%	1971

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (91 bridges here).

Baxter County, AR · 91 bridges
Breckinridge County, KY · 91 bridges
Reynolds County, MO · 91 bridges
Lee County, SC · 91 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1965 here).

Windsor County, VT · avg 1965 · 483 bridges
Bedford County, PA · avg 1965 · 417 bridges
Crawford County, PA · avg 1965 · 399 bridges
Harper County, KS · avg 1965 · 372 bridges

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

All 91 Good 61 Fair 20 Poor 10

Good-condition bridges (61)

Sort:

Dawes County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Dawes County's Poor-condition bridges carry 485 vehicle crossings a day

58.2% of Dawes County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 46.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Dawes 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 (61)

BEAVER VALLEY RD

COLL 7191

OLD DUNLAP ROAD

COLL7186ANTELOPE R

US20

US20

US20

US20

US20

N71

N71

N71

N71

N71

N71

N71

US385

US385

US385

US385

US385

US385

US385

ARNER ROAD

LONE TREE ROAD

N71

US385

N71

COLL 7181

N71

DODD ROAD

US20

FAS 1215

US20

US20

US20/N2/N71

COLL 7181

US20

US20

FAS1225 SLIM BUTTE

COLL 7176

US20

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US20

WEST DAKOTA JCT RD

FAS1225SLIM BUTTE

N. WHITNEY LAKE RD

MOODY ROAD

REDFERN RD

US385

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