County profile · official public datasets

Dawson County, NE

300 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 68% rated Good, 28.3% Fair, 3.7% Poor.

300
Public bridges: 68%
Good condition: 3.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 35%
lowest Poor share in state: 3.7%
Poor-condition share: 300
public highway bridges: 1972
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.

Dawson County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Dawson County ranks #31 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 3.7%). Dawson County, Nebraska contains 300 public highway bridges. Roughly 68% are rated “Good,” 28.3% “Fair,” and 3.7% “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

300

Public highway bridges in Dawson County

Good condition

68%

204 of 300 rated 7-9

Fair condition

28.3%

85 of 300 rated 5-6

Poor condition

3.7%

11 of 300 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#31 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 300 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

68% (204)

Fair

28.3% (85)

Poor

3.7% (11)

Dawson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 480 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 3.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 44 crossings a day against 1,847 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 300 of 300 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

49.3% of Dawson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

148 of the 300 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 68% 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 35.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

CO RD 754/COL 7296 over CNPPID CANAL, built 1935, carries 170 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 11-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 480 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

58
1940s

1
1950s

11
1960s

63
1970s

27
1980s

80
1990s

23
2000s

17
2010s

11
2020s

9

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 80 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1972, 5 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Dawson County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 3.7% Poor share is the 1st-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1972 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is 6 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Dawson County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Cedar County	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 (this page)	300	68%	28.3%	3.7%	1972
Cass County	274	43.1%	43.1%	13.9%	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 Dawson 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 Dawson County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (300 bridges here).

DeKalb County, AL · 300 bridges
Christian County, KY · 300 bridges
Washington County, MD · 300 bridges
Newton County, MO · 300 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1972 here).

Santa Clara County, CA · avg 1972 · 964 bridges
Madison County, AL · avg 1972 · 710 bridges
Kern County, CA · avg 1972 · 668 bridges
York County, PA · avg 1972 · 569 bridges

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

All 300 Good 204 Fair 85 Poor 11

All bridges (300)

Sort:

Dawson County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Dawson County's Poor-condition bridges carry 480 vehicle crossings a day

49.3% of Dawson County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 35.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Dawson 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 (300)

CO RD 428/FAS 1715

COUNTY ROAD 423

COUNTY ROAD 427

COUNTY ROAD 749

COUNTY ROAD 422

COUNTY ROAD 425

COUNTY ROAD 768

COUNTY ROAD 765

COTTONWOOD DRIVE

COUNTY ROAD 441

COUNTY ROAD 426

COUNTY ROAD 449

COUNTY ROAD 446

MAIN ST/FAS 1575

CO RD 755/FAS 1580

COUNTY ROAD 434

CO RD 756/FAS 1600

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COUNTY ROAD 767

CO RD 761/FAS 1610

COUNTY ROAD 431

COUNTY ROAD 437

CO RD 771/FAS 1640

CO RD 761/FAS 1620

COUNTY ROAD 425

CO RD 421/FAS 1725

COUNTY HIGHWAY

CO RD 756/FAS 6556

CO RD 756/FAS 1600

4TH ST

US30

I80

I80

RD 416

CO RD 755/FAS 1580

COUNTY ROAD 762

US30

COUNTY ROAD 439

CO RD 444/FAS 1855

CO RD 438/FAS 1620

CO RD 437/FAS 1705

CO RD 416/FAS 1723

CO RD 756/FAS 1600

CO RD 772/FAS 1723

COUNTY ROAD 436

COUNTY ROAD 439

COUNTY ROAD 760

CO RD 428/FAS 1715

COUNTY ROAD 429

COUNTY ROAD 446

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