Total bridges
24
Public highway bridges in Garfield County
County profile · official public datasets
Garfield County, NE
24 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 58.3% rated Good, 37.5% Fair, 4.2% Poor.
- 24
- Public bridges
- 58.3%
- Good condition
- 4.2%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Garfield County posts a better-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state across rated county bridge inventory.
- Top 40%
- lowest Poor share in state
- 4.2%
- Poor-condition share
- 24
- public highway bridges
- 1978
- 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.
Garfield County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Garfield County ranks #35 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.2%). Garfield County, Nebraska contains 24 public highway bridges. Roughly 58.3% are rated “Good,” 37.5% “Fair,” and 4.2% “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
58.3%
14 of 24 rated 7-9
Fair condition
37.5%
9 of 24 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4.2%
1 of 24 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#35 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 24 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 58.3% (14)
Fair 37.5% (9)
Poor 4.2% (1)
Garfield County's Poor-condition bridges carry 5 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.2% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 5 crossings a day against 812 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 24 of 24 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
33.3% of Garfield County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
8 of the 24 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 58.3% 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.
One structure carries 100% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
COUNTY HIGHWAY over BIG CEDAR CREEK, built 1965, carries 5 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 1-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 5 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Garfield County's bridges were built
24 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1930s 2
1930–1939
2 bridges
- 1940s 2
1940–1949
2 bridges
- 1950s 3
1950–1959
3 bridges
- 1960s 1
1960–1969
1 bridges
- 1980s
1980–1989
9 bridges
- 1990s 2
1990–1999
2 bridges
- 2000s 3
2000–2009
3 bridges
- 2010s 1
2010–2019
1 bridges
- 2020s 1
2020–2029
1 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1980s, when 9 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 37.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 35 to 44 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year (1978) matches the Nebraska average (1977).
How Garfield County compares with Nebraska's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Garfield County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.2% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1978 against a peer-group mean of 1978 is in line with the group.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garden County | 29 | 79.3% | 20.7% | 0% | 1964 |
| Garfield County (this page) | 24 | 58.3% | 37.5% | 4.2% | 1978 |
| Keya Paha County | 23 | 43.5% | 43.5% | 13% | 1971 |
| Loup County | 20 | 50% | 35% | 15% | 1977 |
| Blaine County | 19 | 57.9% | 31.6% | 10.5% | 1990 |
| Thomas County | 19 | 57.9% | 42.1% | 0% | 1989 |
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 Garfield 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 Garfield County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside NE (24 bridges here).
- Meade County, KY · 24 bridges
- Robertson County, KY · 24 bridges
- De Baca County, NM · 24 bridges
- Oliver County, ND · 24 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1978 here).
- Orange County, CA · avg 1978 · 1,164 bridges
- Sumner County, KS · avg 1978 · 659 bridges
- Allen County, IN · avg 1978 · 613 bridges
- Livingston County, IL · avg 1978 · 579 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Good-condition bridges (14)
MIN MAINT RD
GoodOver: CEDAR CREEK
17E 7.5N BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1940 Load: 8.0 t ADT: 5
COUNTY HIGHWAY
GoodOver: MIRDAN CANAL
.5S 1.5W BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1984 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 5
COUNTY HIGHWAY
GoodOver: CATTLE PASS
1.5S BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 2007 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 25
N91
GoodOver: STREAM
1W BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1950 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 1,385
N91
GoodOver: NORTH LOUP RIVER TRIB
1W BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1950 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 1,385
N91
GoodOver: BEAN CREEK
7E BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1934 Load: 22.0 t ADT: 765
N11
GoodOver: STREAM
1SE BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1996 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 1,840
N11
GoodOver: LITTLE CEDAR CREEK
19N BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 2001 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 430
N11
GoodOver: BIG CEDAR CREEK
22N BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 2001 Load: 33.0 t ADT: 415
N91
GoodOver: MIRDAN CANAL
3W BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1982 Load: 35.0 t ADT: 1,385
N96
GoodOver: CALAMUS RIVER
JCT N11/N91 3W 2.8N, Garfield, NE
Built 2020 Load: 35.0 t ADT: 675
N11/N91
GoodOver: NORTH LOUP RIVER
1NE BURWELL, Garfield, NE
Built 1940 Load: 46.0 t ADT: 2,065
N96
GoodOver: NORTH LOUP RIVER
JCT N11/N91 .6W 1N, Garfield, NE
Built 2019 Load: 47.0 t ADT: 980
Hatchery Road
GoodOver: Mirdan Canal
5 mi NW of Burwell, Garfield, NE
Built 1989 Load: 99.9 t ADT: 6
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.