County profile · official public datasets

Garden County, NE

29 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 79.3% rated Good, 20.7% Fair, 0% Poor.

29
Public bridges: 79.3%
Good condition: 0%
Poor condition

The verdict

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

Garden County pairs a top-10% lowest Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

Top 9%
lowest Poor share in state: 0%
Poor-condition share: 29
public highway bridges: 1964
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.

Garden County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Garden County ranks #8 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 0%). Garden County, Nebraska contains 29 public highway bridges. Roughly 79.3% are rated “Good,” 20.7% “Fair,” and 0% “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

Public highway bridges in Garden County

Good condition

79.3%

23 of 29 rated 7-9

Fair condition

20.7%

6 of 29 rated 5-6

Poor condition

0 of 29 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#8 of 88

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

Condition distribution

Share of 29 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

79.3% (23)

Fair

20.7% (6)

Poor

0% (0)

55.2% of Garden County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

16 of the 29 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 79.3% 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.

1920s

2
1930s

5
1940s

6
1960s

2
1970s

3
1980s

4
1990s

5
2000s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1940s, when 6 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 20.7% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 75 to 84 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1964, 13 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.

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

The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Garden County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 0% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1964 against a peer-group mean of 1975 is 11 years older.

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

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Garden County and the 5 Nebraska counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Banner County	36	77.8%	22.2%	0%	1972
Chase County	33	87.9%	9.1%	3%	1988
Box Butte County	30	93.3%	6.7%	0%	1967
Garden County (this page)	29	79.3%	20.7%	0%	1964
Garfield County	24	58.3%	37.5%	4.2%	1978
Keya Paha County	23	43.5%	43.5%	13%	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 Garden 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 Garden County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside NE (29 bridges here).

Burke County, ND · 29 bridges
Ceiba County, PR · 29 bridges
Guayama County, PR · 29 bridges
Jim Hogg County, TX · 29 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1964 here).

Bergen County, NJ · avg 1964 · 577 bridges
Morris County, NJ · avg 1964 · 508 bridges
Baltimore city County, MD · avg 1964 · 374 bridges
Ross County, OH · avg 1964 · 356 bridges

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

All 29 Good 23 Fair 6 Poor 0

Good-condition bridges (23)

Sort:

Garden County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

55.2% of Garden County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

How Garden 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 (23)

COUNTY HIGHWAY 195

US26/N92

US26/N92

US26/N92

US26/N92

US26/N92

US26

US26

N27

N92

FAS 1275 CO RD 181

FAS 1245/CO RD 191

COUNTY ROAD 48

COUNTY HIGHWAY 36

COLL 7207

COUNTY HIGHWAY 185

COUNTY HIGHWAY

US26/N92

US26/N92

COUNTY ROAD 70

US26/N92

US26/N92

ROAD 50

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