Total bridges
300
Public highway bridges in Dawson County
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.
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.
When Dawson County's bridges were built
300 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s
1930–1939
58 bridges
- 1940s 1
1940–1949
1 bridges
- 1950s 11
1950–1959
11 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
63 bridges
- 1970s 27
1970–1979
27 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
80 bridges
- 1990s 23
1990–1999
23 bridges
- 2000s 17
2000–2009
17 bridges
- 2010s 11
2010–2019
11 bridges
- 2020s 9
2020–2029
9 bridges
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.
| 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.
Good-condition bridges (204)
N21
GoodOver: DAWSON COUNTY CANAL
6N LEXINGTON, Dawson, NE
Built 2021 Load: 51.0 t ADT: 1,015
CO RD 428/FAS 1715
GoodOver: FARMERS/MERCHANTS CANAL
JCT US30/L-24A 4.6N, Dawson, NE
Built 1984 Load: 53.0 t ADT: 260
N40
GoodOver: DRY FORK CREEK
5NW SUMNER, Dawson, NE
Built 1965 Load: 54.0 t ADT: 870
ROAD 424
GoodOver: SPRING CREEK
3N 3E OF COZAD, Dawson, NE
Built 2021 Load: 58.0 t ADT: 110
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.