County profile · official public datasets

Franklin County, NE

104 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.7% rated Good, 38.5% Fair, 2.9% Poor.

104
Public bridges: 58.7%
Good condition: 2.9%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Franklin County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.

Top 26%
lowest Poor share in state: 2.9%
Poor-condition share: 104
public highway bridges: 1977
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.

Franklin County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Franklin County ranks #23 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 2.9%). Franklin County, Nebraska contains 104 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.7% are rated “Good,” 38.5% “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

104

Public highway bridges in Franklin County

Good condition

58.7%

61 of 104 rated 7-9

Fair condition

38.5%

40 of 104 rated 5-6

Poor condition

2.9%

3 of 104 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#23 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 104 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

58.7% (61)

Fair

38.5% (40)

Poor

2.9% (3)

Franklin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 57 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.3% 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 19 crossings a day against 301 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 104 of 104 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

37.5% of Franklin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

39 of the 104 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 58.7% 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 87.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

COLL 7444 over TURKEY CREEK, built 1935, carries 50 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 3-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 57 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1930s

3
1940s

1
1950s

21
1960s

7
1970s

14
1980s

35
1990s

11
2000s

8
2010s

4

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 35 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 33.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1977) matches the Nebraska average (1977).

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Franklin County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 2.9% Poor share is the 2nd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1977 against a peer-group mean of 1972 is 5 years newer.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Franklin County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Valley County	115	80.9%	19.1%	0%	1981
Franklin County (this page)	104	58.7%	38.5%	2.9%	1977
Frontier County	96	59.4%	20.8%	19.8%	1970
Polk County	94	57.4%	30.9%	11.7%	1975
Harlan County	92	63%	27.2%	9.8%	1969
Dawes County	91	67%	22%	11%	1965

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

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (104 bridges here).

Nassau County, FL · 104 bridges
Brooks County, GA · 104 bridges
Grady County, GA · 104 bridges
Bonner County, ID · 104 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1977 here).

San Diego County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,632 bridges
King County, WA · avg 1977 · 1,238 bridges
Riverside County, CA · avg 1977 · 1,117 bridges
Shelby County, TN · avg 1977 · 1,077 bridges

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

All 104 Good 61 Fair 40 Poor 3

Good-condition bridges (61)

Sort:

Franklin County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Franklin County's Poor-condition bridges carry 57 vehicle crossings a day

37.5% of Franklin County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 87.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Franklin 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)

WASHINGTON STREET

US136

COUNTY HIGHWAY

FAS 1820

FAS 1820

FAS 1945

FAS 1945

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COLL 7446

COUNTY HIGHWAY

COLL 7448

N4

N4

N44

US136

US136

US136

US136

S31A UPLAND SPUR

S31B HILDRETH SPUR

TOWNSHIP ROAD

25 RD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

US136

FAS 1925

FAS 1935

TOWNSHIP ROAD

TOWNSHIP ROAD

COLL 7453

N10

S31C NAPONEE SPUR

FAS 1975

COUNTY HIGHWAY

N4

N10

US136

US136

L31D FRANKLIN CNLK

FAS 1820

TOWNSHIP ROAD

US136

US136

S31B HILDRETH SPUR

TOWNSHIP ROAD

N10

COLL 7444

COLL 7448

FAS 1990

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