Total bridges
175
Public highway bridges in Hamilton County
County profile · official public datasets
175 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 32% rated Good, 56% Fair, 12% Poor.
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Hamilton County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.
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.
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Hamilton County ranks #72 of 88 Nebraska counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 12%). Hamilton County, Nebraska contains 175 public highway bridges. Roughly 32% are rated “Good,” 56% “Fair,” and 12% “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
175
Public highway bridges in Hamilton County
Good condition
32%
56 of 175 rated 7-9
Fair condition
56%
98 of 175 rated 5-6
Poor condition
12%
21 of 175 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#72 of 88
Among Nebraska counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Share of 175 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
That is 0.3% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 12% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 52 crossings a day against 4,211 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 175 of 175 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
114 of the 175 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 32% 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.
FAS 2495 over PLATTE RIVER, built 1982, carries 370 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 21-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 1,100 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
175 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
1910–1919
1 bridges
1920–1929
2 bridges
1930–1939
51 bridges
1940–1949
5 bridges
1950–1959
9 bridges
1960–1969
42 bridges
1970–1979
8 bridges
1980–1989
12 bridges
1990–1999
22 bridges
2000–2009
13 bridges
2010–2019
5 bridges
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 51 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 29.1% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1965, 12 years older than the Nebraska average of 1977.
The 5 Nebraska counties nearest Hamilton County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 12% Poor share is the 3rd-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1965 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 8 years older.
Showing the 5 closest of 87 Nebraska counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nemaha County | 179 | 44.1% | 19.6% | 36.3% | 1967 |
| Pierce County | 177 | 39% | 47.5% | 13.6% | 1968 |
| Hamilton County (this page) | 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 |
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 Hamilton County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
Two NBI-derived peer sets for Hamilton County, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Nearest county inventories outside NE (175 bridges here).
Nearest mean year-built outside NE (1965 here).
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Over: BEAVER CREEK
3E 2.7N GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
3W 9.3S AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
3S 1.7W AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
1.6N 1E GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
3E 1.5S OF GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: BIG BLUE RIVER W FK N BR
4.4S 4.5W GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
1W 3.9S AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
3.6E 1.3S AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
2E PHILLIPS, Hamilton, NE
Over: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
3S .7E MARQUETTE, Hamilton, NE
Over: W FK BIG BLUE RIVER
2E .2N STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
1N 2.5E AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
.7W 1.8N HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Over: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
.5W 3.5S HORDVILLE, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
1N 1.3W HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
3W 2.3S AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
3.5S AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
1N .7W AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
2.9E 2.5N GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: W FK BIG BLUE RIVER
.3N 5E STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
2E 1.3N HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Over: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
1.8E 3S MARQUETTE, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
2E 2.3N HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
1E 1S PHILLIPS, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
3.6E 1.6N AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
3E 1.3S GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
KRONBORG, Hamilton, NE
Over: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
1E 2.8S HORDVILLE, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
JCT I80/S-41B 1W 1.4S, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
1.8S .5E GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: BIG BLUE RIVER W FK N BR
1S 3.5W GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
5E N14 CLAY CL, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
.5S 1.6E PHILLIPS, Hamilton, NE
Over: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
2E 2.7S HORDVILLE, Hamilton, NE
Over: I80
1E AURORA INTRCHG, Hamilton, NE
Over: N BR BIG BLUE RIVER
JCT N14/S-41C 2.9E, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
2W 8.6S AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
JCT US34/L-41D 2.5N, Hamilton, NE
Over: W FK BIG BLUE RIVER
4E STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
2S US34 YORK CL, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
3.5E OF STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
4E PHILLIPS, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
2N GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
3.3S GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
2.3N 3.5W GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
1.4S PHILLIPS, Hamilton, NE
Over: STREAM
3E 5S STOCKHAM, Hamilton, NE
Over: BEAVER CREEK
1.3S 1.9E HAMPTON, Hamilton, NE
Over: BIG BLUE RIVER W FK N BR
1.8S .7W GILTNER, Hamilton, NE
Over: LINCOLN CREEK
STREETER PARK AURORA, Hamilton, NE
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
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.