County profile · official public datasets

Douglas County, NE

509 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 50.7% rated Good, 46.4% Fair, 2.9% Poor.

509
Public bridges: 50.7%
Good condition: 2.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

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

Top 28%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.9%
Poor-condition share: 509
public highway bridges: 1985
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.

Douglas County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Douglas County ranks #25 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.9%). Douglas County, Nebraska contains 509 public highway bridges. Roughly 50.7% are rated “Good,” 46.4% “Fair,” and 2.9% “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

509

Public highway bridges in Douglas County

Good condition

50.7%

258 of 509 rated 7-9

Fair condition

46.4%

236 of 509 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.9%

15 of 509 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#25 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 509 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

50.7% (258)

Fair

46.4% (236)

Poor

2.9% (15)

Douglas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 319,237 vehicle crossings a day

That is 2.1% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 2.9% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 21,282 crossings a day against 34,890 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 509 of 509 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

30.3% of Douglas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

154 of the 509 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 50.7% 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 26.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

US75 over J ST, built 1970, carries 85,640 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 15-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 319,237 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1920s

5
1930s

24
1940s

3
1950s

18
1960s

58
1970s

63
1980s

100
1990s

102
2000s

99
2010s

24
2020s

13

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1990s, when 102 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 25 to 34 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1985, 8 years newer than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Douglas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.9% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1985 against a peer-group mean of 1980 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Douglas County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Douglas County (this page)	509	50.7%	46.4%	2.9%	1985
Saunders County	506	27.7%	64%	8.3%	1972
Buffalo County	459	57.5%	40.7%	1.7%	1989
Platte County	433	34.4%	60.7%	4.8%	1980
Cuming County	402	25.1%	72.9%	2%	1986
Gage County	394	36.5%	55.3%	8.1%	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 Douglas 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 Douglas County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (509 bridges here).

Oakland County, MI · 508 bridges
Morris County, NJ · 508 bridges
Wood County, OH · 508 bridges
Linn County, IA · 506 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1985 here).

Hillsborough County, FL · avg 1985 · 840 bridges
Nueces County, TX · avg 1985 · 528 bridges
Grayson County, TX · avg 1985 · 513 bridges
Darke County, OH · avg 1985 · 463 bridges

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

All 509 Good 258 Fair 236 Poor 15

Good-condition bridges (258)

Sort:

Douglas County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Douglas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 319,237 vehicle crossings a day

30.3% of Douglas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 26.8% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Douglas 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 (258)

208TH STREET

BLUE SAGE PKWY

US6

N64

N64 NB

SB-US75

NB-I480

20TH ST/FAU 5089

I-80 WB

COLL 7938

COUNTY HIGHWAY

I680 BRG#13N&S

I680

I680

148 TH STREET

PACIFIC ST/FAU5044

SEWARD STREET

WOOLWORTH AVE

DUTCH HALL ROAD

IDA STREET

MARINDA STREET

EB EXPRESSWAY

WB EXPRESWAY

RAMP 30 OVER PAPIO

WB-US6 BRG #8

AMES AVE/FAU 5080

EB-I80

US275/N92

US6

72ND ST/FAU 5037

MAIN STREET

180TH STREET

BLONDO ST/FAU 5066

Q ST

NORTH RIDGE DRIVE

J J PERSHING DR

I ST/FAU 5028

STORZ EXPRESSWAY

STATE ST

US6

US75SB RAMP OV BUR

BRISTOL ST

WB-I80

WB-I80

EB-I80

24TH ST/FAU 5083

US275

RAMP-L28B

OLD LINCOLN HWY

DUTCH HALL ROAD

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