Total bridges
169
Public highway bridges in Furnas County
County profile · official public datasets
Furnas County, NE
169 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 62.7% rated Good, 27.8% Fair, 9.5% Poor.
- 169
- Public bridges
- 62.7%
- Good condition
- 9.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Furnas County posts a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across mid-size county bridge inventory.
- 63rd
- of 88 on Poor share
- 9.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 169
- public highway bridges
- 1973
- 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.
Furnas County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Furnas County ranks #63 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 9.5%). Furnas County, Nebraska contains 169 public highway bridges. Roughly 62.7% are rated “Good,” 27.8% “Fair,” and 9.5% “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
62.7%
106 of 169 rated 7-9
Fair condition
27.8%
47 of 169 rated 5-6
Poor condition
9.5%
16 of 169 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#63 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 169 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 62.7% (106)
Fair 27.8% (47)
Poor 9.5% (16)
Furnas County's Poor-condition bridges carry 2,923 vehicle crossings a day
That is 4% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 9.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 183 crossings a day against 507 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 169 of 169 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
46.2% of Furnas County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
78 of the 169 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 62.7% 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 87.4% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
US6/US34 over ELK CREEK, built 1936, carries 2,555 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 16-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 2,923 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Furnas County's bridges were built
169 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1910s 1
1910–1919
1 bridges
- 1920s 1
1920–1929
1 bridges
- 1930s
1930–1939
42 bridges
- 1940s 8
1940–1949
8 bridges
- 1950s 12
1950–1959
12 bridges
- 1960s 3
1960–1969
3 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
20 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
20 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
27 bridges
- 2000s 14
2000–2009
14 bridges
- 2010s 15
2010–2019
15 bridges
- 2020s 6
2020–2029
6 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 42 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 24.9% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1973) matches the Nebraska average (1977).
How Furnas County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Furnas County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 9.5% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1973 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamilton County | 175 | 32% | 56% | 12% | 1965 |
| Johnson County | 173 | 47.4% | 27.2% | 25.4% | 1971 |
| Merrick County | 173 | 65.3% | 26% | 8.7% | 1976 |
| Burt County | 169 | 36.7% | 60.4% | 3% | 1983 |
| Furnas County (this page) | 169 | 62.7% | 27.8% | 9.5% | 1973 |
| Antelope County | 162 | 31.5% | 53.1% | 15.4% | 1970 |
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 Furnas 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 Furnas County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (169 bridges here).
- Pike County, AL · 169 bridges
- Laurens County, GA · 169 bridges
- Cumberland County, IL · 169 bridges
- Union County, IA · 169 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1973 here).
- Jefferson County, AL · avg 1973 · 1,068 bridges
- Erie County, NY · avg 1973 · 906 bridges
- Davidson County, TN · avg 1973 · 832 bridges
- Lancaster County, PA · avg 1973 · 801 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (16)
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
6.2S 1E OF BEAVER CITY, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 2.0 t ADT: 10
ROAD 726
PoorOver: STREAM
1E US283 GOSPER CL, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 4.0 t ADT: 10
ROAD 724
PoorOver: DEER CREEK
.5W 1N OF HOLBROOK, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 5.0 t ADT: 40
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: DRY CREEK
2W 7.7S OF BEAVER CITY, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 9.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: CAMBRIDGE-OXFORD-ORLEANS
2W 1.2N OF EDISON, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 10.0 t ADT: 15
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: CAMBRIDGE-OXFORD-ORLEANS
1.5E OF ARAPAHOE, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 11.0 t ADT: 10
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: STREAM
5N OXFORD, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 11.0 t ADT: 25
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: DEER CREEK
1.5W 2N OF HOLBROOK, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 25
ROAD 721
PoorOver: TURKEY CREEK TRIB
2.5E OF EDISON, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 30
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: SAPPA CREEK
5S 2.2E OF HOLLINGER, Furnas, NE
Built 1981 Load: 15.0 t ADT: 20
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: SMITH CANYON
4W 1N OF HOLBROOK, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 15
Rd 415
PoorOver: Cambridge Canal
5.6 mi E NE of Cambridge, Furnas, NE
Built 1963 Load: 22.5 t ADT: 3
US6/US34
PoorOver: ELK CREEK
1E ARAPAHOE, Furnas, NE
Built 1936 Load: 26.0 t ADT: 2,555
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: CAMBRIDGE-OXFORD-ORLEANS
.5W .5N OF HOLBROOK, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 28.0 t ADT: 30
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: CAMBRIDGE-OXFORD-ORLEANS
N EDGE OF ARAPAHOE, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 32.0 t ADT: 100
COUNTY HIGHWAY
PoorOver: CAMBRIDGE-OXFORD-ORLEANS
1.2NW OF OXFORD, Furnas, NE
Built 1935 Load: 34.0 t ADT: 25
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.